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Hi Guys,
My name is Martin and i am new in town ;-) Great looking forum.
Just have a couple of rental questions which I am sure you guys could help me with.
I am starting to look for a property to rent for myself. I know that most landlord and realtor's will do a credit and reference check prior to going ahead with me as a tenant.
I heard that competition on certain good properties can be high. Do or did you guys ever do your own credit and reference check so when you were interested in a property you could hand over the references immediately and hopefully secure it against the competition ;-)
Many thanks for reading and looking forward to the responses
today with a photo or document not being worth a hill of beans as far as trusting it to be un-altered i would not accept any paperwork as fact i did not get myself.
Thanks for the feedback. Do landlords/ Realtor's look for any previous rental history like a written reference from a previous Realtor or landlord. This is the case in the UK and Ireland where had previously rented.
It's purely dependent on what you're looking at. Most complexes managed by a property management company go by the book and, frankly, tend to be really anal about the whole application process. Conversely, a private landlord with only a couple of rentals may not even bother to do any sort of a background check at all other than verifying employment/income and checking a couple of references. It can go from one extreme to the other! Same goes for the credit checks. You can get your own basic paperwork for a few dollars and some prospective LLs will be interested in it and some not. Doesn't hurt to have it and might save you a few dollars. Good luck with the dwelling hunt!
thanks guys. I thought many agents would have to follow company procedure but like suggested landlords can obviously make their own call.
I will just wait and see what property I find and who I am attempting to convince I am the right guy for the rental ha ha. Any tips on what references these guys like most?
Do your own credit check to se if there is anything on your report that you need to fix. I am a private landlord and do full credit, background and reference checks. At the end of it its still a judgement call if between 2 tenants of equal backgrounds. It does help if you show up prepared to complete the application and without attempting to negotiate on the rental amount or need for last month in advance.
martin, I will not accept any background check or credit information handed to me by the applicant. It is much too easy to modify those reports, so I will only consider the report that I have ordered myself.
However, I do like to see the rabies vaccination certificate for pets and any grant letters concerning disability payments or school grants.
If you want a jump in the line for your application, take all the information you need for the application and fill it out right then and there. I am always impressed when the aplicant has everything they need all neatly organized in a folder. That happens rarely and I have almost always rented to those applicants. Not because of the folder, but because they were efficient and organized people.
Efficient and organized people often have good jobs, where the boss likes them and gives them a good reference and they are very often efficient and clean about their living quarters, also, which means they come with good landlord references.
So, I am always pleased when I see the organized folder appear. The last 2 vacancies I filled had those organized folders and all the information on their applications checked out as both true and very highly recommended.
The flip side is when I get a phone call to ask what the address is and when I try to give them the address, they ask me to hold on while they find a pen and paper. Hey, they called me to get the address. You think they would know they would need something to write the address down. I don't think I've ever rented to any of those people. Not because of the pen, but because when I check their references, I am often told that they are unreliable. That is, if they evern show up for their appointment, which they often forget to do.
I don't give much credit to a letter or reference from a previous place since a police offer told me once that a bad reference means your bad tenant will stay longer....
We will not accept a credit report brought in by a tenant unless we can verify it was recently pulled and we can call the company that run it but most companies will not spend time on the phone to check their files since the background checks are not that expensive.
Do your own credit check to se if there is anything on your report that you need to fix. I am a private landlord and do full credit, background and reference checks. At the end of it its still a judgement call if between 2 tenants of equal backgrounds. It does help if you show up prepared to complete the application and without attempting to negotiate on the rental amount or need for last month in advance.
I'm confused by the "need for last month in advance"?
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