I want to rent out my existing home, any advice on where to find a good tenant?

I want to move, but with the existing market, I don't want to get crushed on the selling price. so I am interested in Renting out my first property. hoping to get some basic fundamental advice so I don't mess this up!





I want to rent out my existing home, any advice on where to find a good tenant?
Complete back ground and credit check. Let no one with anything off into your property. DO NOT LISTEN to any sob story about why they were evicted, why they do not pay their bills, etc. You will get screwed if you do.





Make sure they pay their bills and do not try to justify not paying anyone, they have a good job and have had it 2 or more years, they have never been evicted, are not sex offenders and are not felons.





Look at their car, it is a great indication of their cleanliness and do a drive by of where they live now.





Look up the phone numbers to landlords yourself, scum balls sometimes try to give themselves references. I look up the owner in the tax records and call from there, I never trust the numbers tenants give me. The same goes for employers, call the company directly and talk to the Human Resources, not anyone else there.I want to rent out my existing home, any advice on where to find a good tenant?
First precaution is to do a background check on anyone you decide to rent to. Ask for a deposit, to cover for damages, and first and last month rent. Might not be a bad idea to check with your insurance to see if you have the right amount of coverage to cover damages when they leave.
I have owned rental property for years and there is nowhere to look for good tenants. Tenants have more legal rights than you as an owner. Eviction takes months and the loss of rent hurts your bottom line. Be careful
You can probably try advertising on Craigslist first.
In Australia the best answer is to get a property manager to do this for you. They can access 'bad tenant lists' where a private landlord cannot. However this is not to say you can't do research yourself. Definitely look into their employment, previous landlords and neighbours are also a good resource. (Thats how I found out about one of my bad tenants)





Never never never let them tell you a story about hard times, wrongful evictions or extenuating circumstances - they all lie. FULL STOP. Good tenants don't have these stories to tell so that is a good sign. Don't go on their appearance - very misleading as anyone can dress it up. Car and current home are better indicators.





Another problem that crops up regularly for us is the question of pets. We always say no to them despite our property manager having a seperate contract to sign stating they will repair and pay for any damages done by the animal. Despite us always saying no we almost always find an animal in residence. ';I'm just looking after it for a friend for a couple of days/weeks'; is the excuse they all use. This is crap! Animals can, and do, cause a major amount of damage. We allowed a tenant some years ago to keep a cat. This became dogs and cats (plural) and when he left the cat urine in the carpet throughout the whole house was so bad it cost us over $2000 to replace the lot. The tenancy tribunal is geared to look after the tenant not the landlord and we couldn't get any of the amount from him because we had allowed him to have an animal so we had to wear the damages.





So check, double check and check again by yourself. Accept no numbers from them, get them yourself. No animals - or if you do allow them -put up the rent. Say if the rental is $300 per week without an animal then put it up to $320 with an animal and also get them to sign an agreement to cover the damages done by the animal. Even if it takes you a week extra of running around and ringing people and employers and past landlords it will pay off in the end. Get one good tenant and you will be set for good times. One bad one and you will never rent again.