5 Simple Steps to Attracting Good Tenants

Good tenants pay on time, treat your property with respect, and are responsible for their actions around the community. On the other hand, a bad tenant can drive down the property, fail to pay rent on time (if at all) and cause damage to the facility. All of this can lead to you losing money on your valuable investment. After signing a lease agreement, removing them from the facility often becomes difficult and takes time, costing you time and money. Finding and attracting quality tenants is one of the most valuable assets to you and your investment. But how do you go about doing that exactly? Here are a few steps you should consider:

1. Respectful

The problem many landlords have is they treat tenants as someone who is just there to give them money, once a month, and that's it. They treat them without respect and aren't around for repairs, should something come up. This is the quick and easy path towards running down the property. You don't have to be best friends with your tenants, but treat them with respect and kindness. Tenants are more likely to treat the location with returning respect when they feel you appreciate them. 

2. Appearance

When looking at how to find a good tenant, the very first exposure any individual looking for a new residence has is the appearance. This includes keeping the exterior of the home or apartment building, maintaining the parking lot, replacing carpet when old tenants move out and ensuring everything is clean and neat. If the property is not professionally kept up and inviting to the eye, high-end, good tenants are less likely to sign a lease.

3. Advertise

Deciding how to find a good tenant often requires you to advertise. Having a simple "For Rent" sign only attracts those who walk past the apartment or home. Instead, you need to advertise on local want ads and websites. Of course, this alone isn't going to help you in how to find a good tenant. You also need to boast what makes the property unique. Good tenants want something that is unique, with special features. If there is a water view, modern design, historical building, or any other feature that makes the location stand out, include this information in a prominent manner on the listing, such as in the title and the first line of the blurb.

4. Verify and Background Check

Check previous leasing locations the tenants lived in. These locations give you a window into how the potential tenants live, including if they paid rent on time, if they treated the property well and if they ever had complaints. This helps you weed out the potentially disastrous tenants from exceptional ones. You can do this yourself, or streamline the process through a background screening company. Select screening companies now offer rental history data, alongside of traditional credit checks and criminal record searches.

5. Current Residents

Good tenants want to live next to good neighbors, and without good neighbors, you'll never bring in top-notch renters. Of course, you can't just toss out current residents, but this makes it very important to hire the right tenant the first time. One bad neighbor can make it almost impossible to bring in much-appreciated tenants, no matter how fantastic the building looks or where it is located. If you have a current bad tenant, at the end of their lease, don't put it up for an extension.

All of these steps take just a little work but can reap benefits for years to come.