Becoming A Homeowner

Posted on: 17 March 2023

One of the biggest challenges of owning a rental property is finding the actual tenants. It's important that they not just want to rent the property but also are a good fit for you as well. This is one area where a property management company can help, since they will find, screen, and sign up tenants for you. Here is how they perform the following key steps in the process.

Advertise Your Property 

Your property management company gets a commission for finding tenants, so they are going to go all out in terms of advertising so that it happens quickly. This means promoting your rental property on websites, in the local newspaper, on social media, and through online rental property listings. The wider net they cast to advertise means that they'll get more potential tenants to apply.

Respond To Inquiries

There is a lot of work that needs to happen for every rental inquiry, with many things having no immediate payoff. A property manager needs to answer questions about the property over email or the phone and then arrange a showing of the property to someone that has expressed interest. These showings need to happen quickly to avoid losing a tenant, and the tenant may not even want to rent the property afterward.

Screen Tenants

Any potential tenant that applies for the property will go through a screening process. This typically involves checking the person's credit history, since you want to see if they pay their bills on time or have a history of letting bills go to collections. There is also income verification to see if they can afford the property they are applying for. A criminal background check is also performed, as well as rental history verification and employment verification. 

Create Leases

The property management company will facilitate the lease signing if everything goes through with the screening process. While the property management company likely has various templates that they use, each lease still needs to be customized towards the property, rental terms, security deposit, and any other details that are unique to the property.

Arrange Move-Ins

The day will then come for the tenant to move into the property. The property management company gets the keys to the tenant, performs a move-in inspection with them, and then documents any potential problems with the property so that it is known what damage the tenant actually does cause over their time living in the property. 

Contact a property management company to learn more.