EIGHT Different Ways to Detect a Bad Tenant
EIGHT Different Ways to Detect a Bad Tenant
Quality tenant selection is the most important function for any property investor, yet a bad tenant will never come along and announce that they’re trouble, at the tenancy application stage!
Bad tenants dress well, are polite, and can look polished when you meet them.
You need to look out for the warning signs carefully and always be wary. That said, it’s always best to have an experienced agent to manage your property as inexperience will most certainly catch out the unwary when it comes to tenant selection.
Contact us on 46392222 should you need a quality agent to help you with finding the right tenant.
These eight things may not (on their own) indicate you have a bad tenant; however, asking questions and taking a better look can uncover the issues when you probe deeper, should you see the warning signs.
Here they are:
#1- Application Blanks and Unanswered Questions
Especially after you’ve made a point that all application forms need to be completed correctly and fully answered to be processed, if you receive vagueness in the answers or just plain information missing, you need to ask questions. Sometimes a bad tenant is simply hoping for an ‘order taker’ who pays little attention and care to carefully process applications, and hopes their missing or vague information will get overlooked.
#2- Wrong Address Information
When you’ve asked for identification copies and utility accounts that have addresses of their current and previous residence noted, check these details against what they said as their current and previous address on their application form. If information is different and does not, start asking questions.
#3- Overdue Utility Accounts
As part of your application process, you should be asking for copies of current utility accounts like electricity and gas. This gives you their current address so you can confirm this. If these accounts are showing ‘overdue’, ‘pay now or you’ll get disconnected’, pay attention. This could be a warning sign to take note of.
#4- Smelly/Stained Applications (Paper Application)
If you’re using a paper application form and it comes back stinking of cigarettes, coffee, and/or food stains then pay attention. This could very well be another warning sign to take heed.
#5- Wrong Current Residence Story
When you first speak with an applicant for the very first time by phone or meet them at a property viewing, always ask right up front ‘Are you renting at the moment?’
Then take note of their answer and their name.
When you get their formal application form that gives you another story as to their current residential status and this has changed from what they originally said, take notice. This could easily be a warning sign.
#6- Drive-By The Outside of their Current Property
If you have the opportunity to be driving distance from their current property noted on their utility accounts and application form, make sure you take a drive-by. How they’ve presented the front (if it has a yard) could tell you a lot of how they will look after your rental property.
#7- Default on a Tenancy Default Database
A pretty obvious warning sign to take heed, that only real estate agents have access to. Talk to us about our application process and what databases we check all applications against.
#8- ‘Friends and Family’ Backstory
A person moving out of their family home at 18 years of age will likely not have a checkable rental history. However, what if it’s someone in their thirties who tells you they’ve always lived with friends and family? If this scenario doesn't make sense, start asking more questions. It could be that they’re staying with friends and relatives simply because they were evicted from their last residence.
When it comes to tenant selection, you cannot go past the rule of ‘previous behaviour dictates future performance’, and without a checkable tenancy history you can run the risk of accepting a bad tenant.
Contact Bronwyn at McAdam and Turnbull Realty on 46392222 email [email protected] if you would like to discuss professional management of your rental property. I am on the side of investors – offering support and advice to Toowoomba investors.