How to Find & Screen the Right Tenant

Reduce Rental Risk Before You Hand Over the Keys

A rental property can look great on paper and still become a financial headache when the wrong tenant moves in.

Missed rent, vacancy, property damage, turnover and eviction costs can quickly eat into the cash flow you expected that property to produce.

The time to reduce that risk isn't after the tenant stops paying. It's before you hand over the keys.

How to Find & Screen the Right Tenant is a practical, step-by-step course for rental property owners who want a consistent process for finding applicants, screening them, verifying their information and setting expectations before move-in.

Drawing from Nancy Wallace-Laabs' years of owning and managing rental properties, this course walks you through the process she used to move from prospective applicant to approved tenant.

You'll learn how to:

• Attract prospective tenants and establish your rental requirements
• Pre-screen applicants before spending time on showings and applications
• Ask key questions about income, occupancy, move-in timing and pets
• Establish and consistently use tenant-selection criteria
• Collect and verify application information
• Review income, employment and rental history
• Use third-party credit and background screening
• Move an approved applicant through the lease and deposit process
• Set expectations before move-in
• Conduct a tenant orientation and establish responsibilities
• Know what should be completed before handing over the keys

Three focused video lessons

1. How to Find and Screen Better Tenants
Learn how to attract applicants, establish requirements and pre-screen prospective tenants.

2. How to Qualify and Approve Rental Applicants
Move from application to verification, screening and an approval decision.

3. From Approved Applicant to Move-In   Establish expectations through the lease, deposits, documentation, tenant orientation and move-in process.

Each lesson is under 10 minutes. You can complete the entire video training in under 30 minutes and begin building your own screening process immediately.

Also included

Tenant Selection Criteria Template
Create clear qualification standards before applications start coming in.

Tenant Welcome Letter
A customizable template for communicating important move-in information and expectations. Your existing letter addresses rent payment, keys/remotes and the move-in condition form. Tenant_Welcome_Letter

Tenant Orientation / Landlord Rules & Regulations Template
Your customizable Addendum A covering tenant responsibilities, property rules, repairs and other operating expectations.

Stop choosing tenants based on an application and a gut feeling.

Build a repeatable process for:

PRE-SCREEN → VERIFY → QUALIFY → APPROVE → SET EXPECTATIONS → MOVE IN

You cannot eliminate every tenant problem. But you can stop making one of the most expensive landlord mistakes: handing over the keys without doing the work upfront.