Tenant screening is extremely important because it ensures that you rent out living units to suitable and reliable tenants. For this reason, many landlords use tenant screening services in San Diego, hoping to secure the most favorable occupants. These San Diego screening services handle all the legwork for an owner, doing a tenant background search, credit checks, and a full tenant report screening. Statistically, tenant screening services result in 14% or more tenants being rejected outright on the basis of poor credit, criminal backgrounds, or some other undesirable aspect of their life. Here are some reasons why tenant screening can be so important for San Diego tenant placement.
Avoid Legal Hassles
If a tenant of yours commits a crime and has a history of criminal activity, it is entirely possible you could be sued for negligence. Since you didn’t conduct a thorough background check, you brought in someone who has a history of criminal activity. You are perfectly within your rights to reject a tenant on the basis of past criminal actions, although you should be prepared to demonstrate that you have the safety of the community in mind.
Protect Your Property
Keep in mind that your rental property represents a major investment, so whatever the tenant screening cost, it will be well worth it. Some tenants can prove to be very harmful to your property, and quickly degrade its value. These are the kind of tenants that would be weeded out by San Diego screening services. This is what will help to avoid any destructive actions on the part of bad tenants.
Avoid Constant Late Payments
A thorough background check which includes credit history will help you to avoid bringing in tenants who end up paying late consistently. Late payments wreak havoc on your own operating budget, and they can quickly mount up to become a major headache. It’s time-consuming and stressful to have to track down tenants and bug them about paying the rent, so you want to avoid that if at all possible. If the problem persists, it might even lead to an eviction, and these are extremely difficult to pursue, from start to finish. By screening them well beforehand, you’ll know if they have financial troubles, whether they have paid bills on time, and that they have job security to pay the rent.
Lower Turnover
By having a solid screening process in place, you can actually attract more desirable tenants. This in turn, will help reduce the rate of turnover at your facility. No landlord wants to deal with frequent turnover, because it results in lost income and it costs even more money to fill the vacancy again. Many preferred tenants will be attracted by the fact that you don’t allow just anyone in to your building.
Peace of Mind
Some really bad tenants can become a nightmare for a landlord, causing damages, paying late, and making constant requests for maintenance. Many of these types of bad tenants can be eliminated by proper screening beforehand. When you have a solid process in place, you’ll have at least some peace of mind, knowing that you’re doing the best you can do to avoid taking in some of these undesirable individuals.