In today’s session, I will cover the top questions we ask during a landlord reference.
What is a Landlord Reference?
A landlord reference is when we call a previous or current landlord to verify a tenant’s qualifications.
As a property management company, we want to call two landlords. Why? Because the first current landlord, if you have a horrible tenant applicant, is going to say anything to get their tenant out of there.
“Yes, they’re fantastic,” or “Yes, they pay their rent.” With those answers, you will take them in, and then you will assume the problems that these people want to get rid of.
If we go back to two landlords, what ends up happening is that the previous landlord doesn’t have to deal with them anymore so they will tell you the truth. We always like to see a history of that.
Sometimes, it is not possible if they have lived there for a long time or are newer renters. But what we do, no matter what, is we check our references.
Questions to Ask Your Tenant’s Former Landlords
We ask previous or current landlords the following questions to check and ensure they have a good landlord reference.
Have the tenants paid their rent on time?
You don’t want to have a tenant that is late when it comes to paying their rent.
Have they paid all their rent, not just on time, but in general?
It is critical that you know when a tenant has gone above and beyond to pay their rent on time.
How have they been as residents? Has there been any neighbor complaints?
You want to ensure that the residents you are moving into your building aren’t causing issues for other people.
Do they take care of the property?
Are they treating it like a house, or are they trashing it? There is no point in maintaining curb appeal if your property is left in a mess by a difficult tenant.
Would you rent to them again?
And I think this is a huge one. And again, you want to hear from pauses. Everybody might say, “yeah, we’d rent to them again.”
That hesitation might mean something, so you should ask them, “Okay, what is it that you wouldn’t rent to them again? What about them would you change?”
Have they fulfilled every lease obligation or broken any rules and regulations?
And again, if there is any hesitation, you might want to dig further into it. And if not, great.
So if they get green flags and the right answers for all of these questions that we currently ask their current or previous landlord, then that’s definitely an OK to keep proceeding with the applications and approve them.
But if any of these are red flags, if you don’t get good answers, or if there is hesitation, issues, or problems that come up, you should consider their application and debate if you want to approve them moving into your house.
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