Wish you had a better, more effective way to screen potential tenants?
Ah, tenant screening… the necessary thorn in every landlord’s side.
For ages now, we’ve been forced to either rely on unreliable instant background checks to approve potential new tenants, or spend hours upon hours researching applicants’ data manually. The tension lies between trying to be fast, efficient and cost-effective, without accidentally letting lots of the wrong renters slip under the radar without being noticed.
Ever wished there was a better way in this day and age to screen potential tenants – one that was both fast and thorough? – both time-effective and exhaustive?
Well today we bring you a tasty lesson from fellow mogul William Winterton, which promises to reveal just that. William is an active investor and rehab money lender in several states, and recently shared this with us by way of our Mogul Publishing Program and boy are we glad he did – what a cool service!
Without further ado, let’s turn to William’s tasty tech tip for tenant screening…
Welcome to Tenant Screening for the 21st Century
The greatest buy-and-hold deal in the world doesn't mean anything if it can't cashflow... agreed?
Think about it...
You've knocked on doors of foreclosed homes. You went to auctions. You've sent postcards, answered calls from your bandit signs, negotiated with wholesalers... whatever it's taken for you to finally land that sweet rental property. Now you just need to find the right tenant and you’re cashflowing!
You find a tenant and they agree to your rent. They can move in yesterday. Everything looks perfect… but looks can be expensive. Ask me how I know!
Do you know you found a truly good tenant? How deep do you have to dig to find out for sure? Do you have the time to do a thorough investigation into every applicant's background? You don't- but you’re in a bind… so you stick them in your hard-earned property and pray for the best... right?
ARE YOU INSANE?
My team lends money all day long to investors who buy property, fix it and then put a tenant into it. Unfortunately all tenants aren't created equal (again, ask me how I know). We've had to deal with some pretty nasty situations to get the property back to profitability for everyone, and it isn't a day at the beach.
So as rehab lenders, we've started requiring our investors to screen their tenants better, and what we've found is a great tool called Investigative Screening and Consulting (ISC). I found out about them from a speaker at my local REIA who explained what they do- and it's awesome!
Please note: I don't work for them. I don't make commissions from them. I just like their product and I
felt it was worth passing along to my Mogul community.
ISC basically handles all the stuff investors need but don’t have the time or resources to implement. And it’s simple- you send an application to your perspective tenant through e-mail. They fill it out and pay a fee to submit their application. Yes- THEY pay that fee (and if they’re serious about wanting this rental, they’ll pay!)
You and your perspective tenant get a copy of their credit report, (That’s awesome right there) but here’s the kicker: Once the form is submitted, ISC assigns a private investigator to go through public records and find out the dirt on your tenant.
So if they ever skipped out on a payment, you’ll know about it! If they’re an ex-con… bingo. If they are in default, or if they have any current convictions, or even if they have an alias… you’ll get the skinny.
Plus you can do this all on your smartphone – which means you can get the GREAT tenants into your property quickly before they look around for another place to rent.
Is it the end-all for tenant screening?
It’s close. But for my business, we expect all our investors to use this service in order to place a tenant. There’s a video that explains more about it.
Here’s a helpful video they made about their service:
I hope this was helpful, and happy investing!
William Winterton, VP
Good Steward Capital Management, Inc.
JP Moses
is a real estate investor in Memphis, TN, with experience ranging from land lording to note buying, rehabbing, and wholesaling. However, wholesaling is the area that he enjoys most and where he bring the most experience and expertise to his students.