Questions to Ask When Screening Potential Tenants

What Makes a “Good” Tenant?

First, it’s helpful to know what you’re looking for before you start talking to rental applicants. There are several qualities of great tenants. Some of these include:

• Sufficient income: They have a rent-to-income ratio that aligns with your requirements, where permitted. For example, they have a monthly income that is three times the rent rate.
• An acceptable eviction history: A previous eviction check can help you learn more about their rental past.
• Sufficient credit score. Do they have a “bad” credit score ? Do they have a history of paying their debts on time and in full?
• Positive reference checks from previous landlords.
• Steady employment history may show a track record of stable income.

All of the above criteria are great for a general tenant, but what about a tenant in your specific unit? For example, do you allow pets? Do you rent primarily to college students? The answers may impact what makes a good match for your space.

How to Weed Out Potentially Ill-Fitting Tenants from the Start

One of the best ways to save yourself time and effort during the screening process is to state your leasing criteria upfront when writing your rental advertisement.

Your posting is your opportunity to address things like:

• Pet restrictions or policies
• Parking arrangements
• Move-in date
• Income requirements
• Other screening criteria

This way, applicants can self-select if they’re a good fit for your property and skip it if not.

This effort could help to give you a smaller, but more qualified pool of prospective tenants from the very beginning. By setting expectations upfront and only showing properties to people who align with the rental advertisement, you can be more efficient with your time. And for a busy landlord, time is money.

Then, once you have a pool of applicants you can begin scheduling property tours. This is the perfect time to ask your applicants more questions about themselves. Below are some of the questions you should consider asking to evaluate potential tenants for your rental property.

Tenant Screening Questions to Consider

Below are tenant screening questions you should consider asking your rental applicants to help assess their fit for your unit:

1. What date would you want to move in?

Asking the expected move-in date is one of the best preliminary tenant screening questions. It very quickly establishes whether or not you and your applicant would be the right fit for each other. Here’s why:

• Example 1: You have a vacancy that needs to be filled immediately, but your potential tenant can’t move in for another two months.
• Example 2: The applicant is looking for somewhere to live immediately and your unit won’t be available four or five weeks.
• Example 3: Your potential tenant wants to move a few days after the unit becomes available.

As you can see, this simple question may disqualify some applicants. For an even easier time, you can put the anticipated move-in date on your rental ad.

4. Why are you moving?

Take some time to learn about the reason behind the prospective tenant’s move.

Common, reasonable explanations for moving could include things like:

• They’ve outgrown their current apartment
• They’re relocating for work
• They want to be closer to school
• They want to live in a different neighborhood
• Their previous landlord is selling the property or no longer renting it

That said, don’t take an applicants’ answers at face value. Follow up with a landlord reference check to help ensure your potential tenant has a history of paying rent on time and not destroying property.

5. How many people will live in the unit?

You want to make sure there are enough bedrooms for all who will be staying in the rental and that you don’t exceed occupancy limits. For example, five friends looking to move into your one-bedroom apartment might not be a good fit.

If there are enough rooms for all applicants, learn how to screen multiple tenants for one unit to help reduce your chances of ill-fitting tenants.

7. What’s your monthly income?

It’s no surprise that landlords are concerned about rental non-payment. To make money in a property business, you have to have tenants that pay the rent in time, on full, and every month. So, it makes sense to learn as much about a potential tenant’s finances as possible.

In addition to a chat, there are several different ways you can learn more about a rental applicant’s finances, including:

• On the rental application. Ask about salary up front. Then, you can use Income Insights to help verify your applicant’s actual income matches what they claim. If not, you may need to ask for additional documentation like bank statements or tax returns.
• Credit history. A tenant credit report helps you learn about someone’s financial track record. Do they pay their debts on time? Do they have any worrying financial habits or red flags that indicate they might suddenly stop paying rent?
• ResidentScore®: Included in every SmartMove screening package, ResidentScore is a proprietary calculation that helps predict future eviction risk 15% better than a general credit score alone.

Additionally, it’s important to keep in mind local trends when assessing finances. According to the U.S. Social Security Administration, the U.S. median net compensation was $43,222 in 2023. That amount may strain to meet what you should charge for rent in a major metropolitan area like New York City. However, it may be perfectly acceptable in other markets.

Having more financial data helps you get a sharper image of your applicant. This can help you feel more confident about placing a responsible tenant.

8. Have your ever broken a rental agreement?

The final question to ask tenants is also related to rental history. In some cases, an applicant might have moved out because they broke their rental agreement early. It’s a good idea to find out what happened and what that might mean for you.

For example, some of these reasons for breaking the lease may be perfectly acceptable to you, while others may raise red flags:

• Loud, intense construction on the building next door
• Unruly, disrespectful neighbors
• They didn’t like the wallpaper in the living room
• Relocating for a job
• A breakup or divorce
• They got kicked out for lease violations
• Their psychic told them to move
• Concerns for personal safety
• They lost their job and couldn’t pay rent
• They just didn’t want to live there anymore

In addition to talking to your tenants about this, you can also ask this question during a landlord reference check.