Should Landlords Get Personal References From Rental Applicants?

Rental applications require all sorts of information about the applicant, their credit, their previous rental history, criminal background and employment information. When it comes to rental application though, landlords tend to want to know as much as they can regarding the person who occupies their property. One of the major themes in rental applications is the request for references, personal or character.

Landlords basically want to do a lot of tenant screening to gather all the information they want to about the person who they are going to rent their property. They usually carry out personal references that include calling and evaluating. Moreover, landlords tend to check those avenues that give real information.

Personal References And Why You Should Check Them

Personal references refer to the phone numbers and names of the rental applicants that they give on the application. Similar to HR references, these references basically provide information regarding the applicant including all the details and about the person’s character. The references are not character references but business associates, co-workers and friends.

Why Personal References Are No Good?

Generally though it is felt that these references are not good enough because people tend to provide those references, in fact about people who will provide them with the best details about them. This is therefore not considered to be legit and that is the reason why people don’t think about personal references as worthy enough.

However, there is still a sound reason why these personal references should not be discarded entirely. Personal references can still provide you with certain insights regarding the applicant.

Why Should You Check Them Anyway?

You Might Find The Truth

Certain times the references that the person provides may not really be in line with the applicant. And if this is the case you might have then gained some really valuable insight about the applicant himself. Thus by asking open-ended questions about the person, you might get some really important information about the person which you might have otherwise not have obtained.

You Might Know Their Associates

Additionally, it can also provide you with some information about who the person associates with. This will provide you insights regarding the character and personal references about the person and then it will also provide cross section of co-workers and friends. Acquiring all this information about the client will help you get all the information about the applicant. This information is vital and should be saved.

You Still Have Certain References

In the case of emergency and the person might leave, you will have certain emergency contacts that will save you from trouble. Basically in chance that the person leaves the house without any notice, you will still have an emergency contact that you can reach without any hassle.

Thus even though these references might not have to provide a lot of information about the person, they may still provide you with some information. You can still talk to them and get to know certain details about the person and may lead to some protection in case there is any bad event. However one must never rely too much n these references because they might not always be legit.

It can be said thought that even though personal references don’t really make a big difference, they still have an impact. Why? Simply because you will get to know about the person more. These references can then provide you with some vital information about the person including their criminal background, income verification and others.

The Screening Process

The screening process involves several stages; some of them include:

First Contact
Some pre-screening questions should be asked from the tenant in order to ensure that the prospective tenant does not waste your time. The tenant will call you for more information about the lease and the property.

First Meeting
The first meeting involves meeting the person for the first time. This includes meeting the tenant for the very first time. First meetings can tell you a lot about the person and you should therefore be very careful about the red flags. You must carefully assess the person when you meet them and check for any loose strings.

The Application
Credit reports and criminal checks are essential when it comes to keeping a prospective tenant. The tenant is interested and so are you. You must have them fill out the application so that the references you get from the prior landlords and employers are legit. You must also make sure that you conduct a criminal check and credit report to ensure in order to conduct background checks on the person.

Approving The Tenant
Since you will be getting a lot of applications in the same time, you must screen the candidates properly. Once you are through with the screening process, you must then accept the suitable client and decline the other applicants. Unless and until you haven’t signed the lease, you will not be through with the screening process.

Lease Signing
The final process involves lease signing. You have to sign the lease in order to finalize the deal. You and your prospective tenant will be ready to sign the lease. Go through the lease with him carefully and ensure that the rules are finally completed. You can always think about dropping the lease if things are not going in your favor.

Questions You Should Ask
Landlords often wonder about the questions they should ask the prospective tenant. The questions then should include the following:
Applicant contact information: You must acquire all the information about the applicant including their legal name, driver’s license number, eviction process etc. You must also check the email address of the client.

Existing or prior residence information: This is another essential that you must check including the residence history and check up on the references to follow up with.

Employment History, Proof Of Income: Lastly, you must also acquire information about the general history and proof of income about the client to ensure that you have enough information about the client.