A Few Rental Tips For New Tenants
You’ve probably noticed that rental tips for tenants are tough to find.
That’s because most property management training articles are focused on landlords and property managers, not on giving rental tips to tenants.
Today we’re going to turn the tables a little bit and review a few rental tips for tenants that will give you an idea of how a landlord thinks when he or she is trying to rent their house.
These rental tips are based on my personal experience renting houses, condos, and apartments to a lot of different tenants. They’re based on fact, not fiction.
Know Why You Are Calling
Rental tip #1 is be prepared and keep a list.
One thing that landlords look for is if the prospective tenants knows what they’re calling about. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten calls from a tenant who saw my ad on the internet, but because they called so many different places, they had no idea where my rental house was.
See, if the landlord has to play guessing games, you’re not coming across as somebody who is serious about renting a house – even if you are.
Be Up Front
Your second rental tip is to be up front about any credit issues you might have.
The fact is that in today’s market very few people have perfect credit. There have been a ton of foreclosures, short sales, job losses, credit card debt increases, and much more.
Often times it’s not your fault that there’s a credit issue.
Rental tips that we give landlords are to first, see if a tenant has the provable income to meet your rental requirements. Then, consider any credit issues after that.
As long as the rent gets paid on time and the house is taken care of, most landlords will be pretty flexible.
It’s best if you’re up front with a landlord about any credit issues you might have. Doing this goes a long way to showing that you’re serious about renting and also saves both you and the landlord a lot of time if in fact they’re not willing to work with you.
Let’s face it, there is a lot of rental property out there, and if one landlord is unreasonable about something, you’ll very likely find another one that is willing to work with you.
Submit A Complete Application Package
Having a simple website set up for the house for rent is one of the top rental tips that we give landlords, owners and property managers.
Doing this makes it easy for you as a tenant to download the rental application, see what documents and information are required from you, and then put everything together in one neat package.
You might be surprised at how many prospective tenants DO NOT do this, even when the instructions are right there on the page.
This is always a big mistake.
See, in the eyes of the landlord, this is the first time they’re dealing with you. It’s kind of like a ‘first date’.
If somebody who wants to rent my house is sloppy in the application information they give me, or keep forgetting things, it makes me very nervous about how often they’ll pay the rent on time and how well they’ll take care of my house for rent.
More Rental Tips
As a tenant it’s a good idea if you can think like a landlord or owner – to get inside their head.
It puts you on more even ground when you’re trying to rent a house, and it’s always good to know how the other side thinks.
Our best selling 5 Step House Rental eBook is written for landlords and owners trying to rent a house.
We’ve discovered that more and more serious tenants are investing in the eBook also. They find that by understanding what a landlord is looking for, it helps them rent the house that they really want.
As always, I hope you've found this article on rental tips for tenants useful!
Jeffrey Roark
How To Rent My House
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