landlords a couple questions

[bmeier]

Couple of questions looking for advice on.
How do you screen your tenants? Do you perform credit checks or just reference /employment?

If damage occurs to your property what options do you have to do repairs? How do you justify the expenses you remove from the damage deposit if you don't he repairs yourself?

[C_Dave45]

I never did a credit check, although this is wise, I just didn't know how/who to do it. I checked work references. I would phone past landlords of the tenant, but I also would drive by the applicant's current residence. Unannounced. Just do a drive-by to see how he/she kept his residence up.

But in the end, you always run a risk. The cheaper the place, the more problems you will have. When doing repairs yourself, I would base it on a quote from a professional on how much it would cost. Or give yourself a fair hourly rate ($50/hour) and calculate how much time you spend plus materials.

It can be a real pain in the ass, but the long term benefits are nice.

[Amysicle]

My previous landlord said she used Equifax to check the credit history and did employment checks.

[bleu]

We have a condo mgmt company that handles our rental, but I do know that they did credit checks on the current tenants.

Equifax is user friendly.

I agree with c_dave's recommendation of checking references.

[revelations]

Equifax for sure, a credit check really does tell you how 95% of people work in terms of how much they care about things in life.

[Sugarphreak]

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[FraserB]

If the market is still hot when I buy my place, I'll be asking for a letter of employment, doing a credit check and trolling social media.

[Sugarphreak]

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