Here’s what well cover.

1. 31 Screening Questions To Ask Tenants To Help You Avoid A Rental Nightmare
2. The Importance of Pre-Screening Tenants
3. Formally screen with background, credit checks, and a thorough rental application

31 Screening Questions To Ask Tenants

The right tenant can mean years of smooth sailing, while the wrong one can cause all sorts of problems including eviction. Tenant screening involves both verifying the information they've provided on their rental application as well as getting to know them better through questions that go beyond the basics. I’m about to share some of the best questions to ask when screening tenants as well as a few that you should avoid. 

The more information you have on your potential tenant the better decision you’ll make. The only way you’ll get the info you need to find a good tenant is to ask questions. That’s where this big list of screening questions to ask tenants comes in. Incorporate this list in both your tenant pre-screening (verbal communication) and your formal tenant screening (rental application, credit, and background check).

The answers to these questions will give you a good sense of who the tenant is, their employment situation, and whether they have any red flags in their background. You can also use this opportunity to get a feel for their personality and see if they would be a good fit for your rental community.

1. How did you hear about the rental unit? 
   1. If the mention the name of a present or former tenant that gave you problems, caution is recommended.
2. Why are you looking for a new place (why are you moving)? 
   1. Give them the opportunity to elaborate.
   2. If they complain about their former landlord, make sure you get the other side of the story.
3. How long have you been looking for a new place?
   1. If it’s been a while, maybe the other landlords they applied to found some red flags. Run a background check
4. How long do you plan on staying? 
   1. A good answer is “I hate moving”. 
   2. A bad answer is “At least until I can …”
5. Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?
   1. This is a potentially long-term relationship.
   2. All things being equal, if you have 2 applicants, knowing which one you’ll get along with the most is important.
6. What is your current living situation?
   1. Are they living with family? If this is the case why? They may have had previous rental problems.
7. Do you have any pets? 
   1. Even if you allow pets, you’ll still have certain restrictions.
8. How many people will be living with you? Do you have any roommates? 
   1. Make sure to screen all adults.
9. When do you plan on moving in? What is your ideal move-in date?
   1. Needing to move in a hurry is a red flag. If this is the case, find out why.
   2. Did they give their current landlord appropriate notice?
10. Do you have any previous landlord references?
    1. An applicant who doesn’t mind if you speak with current or past landlords is a good sign.
    2. If they’ve had previous issues with their landlord they’ll reluctantly reveal them, while claiming it’s not their fault
11. Can you provide 3 character references?
    1. The company they keep says a lot about a person.
    2. Follow up with references. Look beyond the glowing remarks by using your good judgment.
12. Are you currently behind on any rent payments?
    1. Any answer other than a quickly stated no isn’t good.
13. Are you able to provide a security deposit and the first month's rent?
    1. This speaks for itself.
14. What is your credit score? 
    1. A low credit score doesn’t mean they can’t afford to pay rent. However, it’s an important factor in making a decision.
15. Do you have any debts that need to be paid off?
    1. How will this debt affect your ability to collect rent from them each month?
16. How much rent can you afford to pay? What is your monthly income?
    1. Many prospective tenants live beyond their means by renting more than they can afford.  If there’s a big gap between their answer and what you actually are asking for, consider passing on their application. At the very least verify that their income can support your asking rent. 
17. What is your employment situation? 
    1. How long have you been working at your current job and/or in your current industry?
18. Do you have any other sources of income?
    1. If a potential renter has additional income (i.e. child support) this can help in determining if they’ll have enough income to afford your rent.
19. Has your current residence ever had a problem with bed bugs or any other pests? 
    1. They may not admit to personally ever having bed bugs or roaches, but they’ll tell you if their neighbors have.
    2. Compared to bed bugs, roaches can be handled fairly easily. If they or their neighbors had bed bugs and you rent to them, make sure they agree to let a professional inspect their bedding and sofas immediately after moving in.
20. How clean do you keep your home?
    1. If you can’t say this in your own way without coming across as offensive, don’t bother asking.
    2. A better alternative is this. Their rental application should have their current address. Drive by and see how clean the exterior is kept.
21. Do you or anyone who will be living with you smoke? 
    1. What is your policy on tenants smoking? Do you require renters insurance?
    2. Sometimes heavy smoke remains long after they’ve moved out.
    3. Make sure your smoke detectors keep fresh batteries. Make sure your lease prohibits them from removing the batteries and notify you when they need to change
22. Do you have renter's insurance? 
    1. Your lease should require tenants to acknowledge renters insurance. If they decline they understand that you are not responsible for any losses.
23. What is the best way to reach you? 
    1. Please get an email address. It helps in background checks.
    2. A Facebook account is valuable information. You’ll learn all the good, bad, and ugly details about your prospective tenant’s behavior.
24. Have you ever been evicted?
    1. If they don’t say it with confidence, the word “no” sometimes means “yes, but I’d rather not tell you”.
25. Have you ever been served an eviction notice? 
    1. This is different than the question “Have you ever been evicted?” because you can receive a notice without being evicted.
26. What’s the biggest complaint you’ve had about previous landlords?
    1. Get them to open up. Tell them you want to make sure you’re a good fit and you wouldn’t want to make the same mistakes their previous landlords made.
    2. Pay attention to their answer. Does it sound like the landlord was the problem or was it the tenant?
27. Have you ever filed for bankruptcy? If you have, when was it?
    1. A previous bankruptcy isn’t necessarily a deal breaker. But it can’t be overlooked.
    2. Check their income, credit, and obligations to determine if they have the management of their finances in order now. 
28. Do you have any criminal history? Do you have any criminal convictions? Have you ever been convicted of a felony? Do you have any outstanding warrants for your arrest?
    1. Take your pick on how to ask this question. Just make sure you do ask it.
    2. Anyone can make a mistake. And after they’ve paid for their mistake they should have opportunities. However, you have to also take the welfare of yourself, your tenants, and the people who work for you into consideration when making a decision to rent to someone with a criminal history.
29. Are you comfortable with a credit and criminal background check?
    1. Make sure this is a required part of your written application.
    2. Have all prospective tenants sign to give you the authority to run a credit and criminal background check.
    3. Also, require an application fee that specifically pays for their check
30. Who referred you?
    1. If you have multiple tenants this is a good question, especially if any of your tenants are undesirable. If they happen to be friends with one of your desirable tenants this makes your decision easier.
31. What questions do you have for me about the rental unit, what’s important to you as a tenant, or the application process? 
    1. Good and bad tenants tell you what’s important to them.
    2. What they ask can tell you a lot about their past rental experiences.
    3. Knowing what’s important to your tenants helps you maintain a healthy landlord-tenant relationship.

As a landlord or property manager, you know that one of the most important parts of your job is screening tenants. It's important to carefully screen all potential tenants before signing a lease. Doing so can save you a lot of time and money in the long run. That’s because it helps you avoid bad tenants who are likely to cause damage, miss rent payments, or otherwise create problems.

Screening Tenants

There are two types of screening and both are important

1. Pre-screening
2. Formal Screening

The Importance of Pre-Screening Tenants

Pre-screening tenants is an important part of the screening process. It's your chance to get to know the person who will be living in your rental unit and to make sure they’re a good fit. Pre-screening is similar to a job interview. You’ll ask your potential renter a series of questions designed to extract enough information for you to determine if your rental applicant meets your basic requirements in order to even be considered a viable applicant. If they can’t pass the pre-screening test you’ll both know that it’s a waste of time to go any further in the application process. 

When should you pre-screen?

1. When a potential applicant calls and inquires about your rental.
2. When you meet an applicant in person
3. Throughout the application process you should be asking relevant questions

To get the best results, pre-screening is best approached in a conversational manner. Don’t just rattle off a series of questions. It’s important that you listen and allow them to elaborate as much as possible. Sometimes it’s not what they say but how they say it. Good pre-screening uses the art of listening.

The Best Pre-Screening Questions

When you're pre-screening tenants, you want to get a sense of who they are and whether they would be a good fit for your rental unit. Here are the best screening questions to ask during the pre-screening process:

• How long do you plan on living in the unit?· 
• What is your current employment situation?· 
• Do you have any pets?· 
• Do you have any prior evictions?· 
• How many people will be living in the unit?

These questions will give you a good idea of who your potential tenants are and whether or not they'll be a good fit for your property. 

Pre-Screening Conclusion: 

Asking the right questions when pre-screening tenants is an important part of being a landlord or property manager. It can help you avoid bad tenants and identify red flags that might indicate that someone is likely to cause problems down the road. Be sure to avoid asking any questions that could be construed as discriminatory. They could come back to bite you later on.

Pre-screening tenants is one of the most important duties of any landlord. By asking the right questions, you can weed out problem tenants before they move in and cause damage to your property or disturb other tenants. Conversely, asking the wrong questions could get you into hot water, so it's important to tread carefully. When in doubt, stick to questions about employment history, rental history, and current living situation.  Avoid asking personal questions that could lead to accusations of discrimination. 

Pre-screening is your chance to get to know the person who will be living in your rental unit, and to make sure they are a good fit.

Formal Tenant Screening

Formal tenant screening is more time intensive than pre-screening.

What are the form screening processes?

1. Your rental application is the best way to collect all the information you need to make a decision to rent.
2. You should call all references on your potential renter's application
3. Call current and previous employers to verify work history
4. Call current and previous landlords
   1. Has the tenant ever had any payment problems?
   2. Have they ever served a written notice?
   3. What kind of verbal warnings have they had to give tenants?
   4. Would you ever rent to them again, and if not, why?
5. Run a credit check
6. Run a criminal background check

Require an application fee to cover your background and credit check. Tell them your deal breakers ahead of time, like previous evictions and not enough income to cover the rent. This way they’ll know ahead of time if they should waste their time and money on credit checks and background checks.

A good tenant screening process provides you with all the answers you need to confidently make a decision on whether to rent or not to rent to an applicant. Use our list of screening questions to ask tenants in both your formal and pre-screening tenant screening process. Make sure you get all the information you need to make good rental applicant decisions.

Questions to Avoid When Screening Tenants

Now that we've covered some good questions to ask during the screening process, let's take a look at some questions that landlords should avoid. 

• These include questions like, 
• "Are you married/single/divorced/widowed?" 
• "Do you have kids? If so, how many and how old are they?" 
• "What is your religion or ethnicity?" 
• "What is your sexual orientation?" 
• "Are you pregnant?" 
• "Do you have any medical conditions?" 

Asking these types of questions could open you up to allegations of discrimination.  Other questions to avoid include those about an applicant's country of origin or citizenship status.  Asking these types of questions could lead to accusations of discrimination, so it's best to avoid them altogether. 

Stick to tenant screening questions about 

• an applicant's rental history, 
• employment situation, 
• and financial qualifications.  

With these types of questions, you can get all the information you need to make an informed decision about whether or not to approve an applicant without running into any legal trouble.

So avoid asking any questions that could potentially get you into hot water (avoid asking about a person's race, religion, or national origin). Additionally, steer clear of questions about a person's mental or physical health. Instead, focus on questions that will help you get a better sense of who your potential tenants are financially and whether or not they're likely to cause lease violation problems down the road.

Don’t learn the hard way like Jenny did

Still not convinced on the importance of asking good tenant screening questions? Don’t find out the hard way Jenny did.

Jenny, a landlord who never had a screening system, had a rude awakening on just how important it is to screen tenants properly before renting. Always a bit too trusting, if a rental applicant had the money, Jenny allowed them to move in without any hard questions asked.

She never would have guessed that the applicants she rented to were anything but good people. Unfortunately, her trust led to her downfall. One day, Jenny rented to an applicant named Dale. Dale seemed like a nice guy, and more importantly, he had the money to move in. 

So as usual, Landlord Jenny allowed him to move in without question. A few months go by and right before the first of the month, Dale says "Hey, Jenny, can I talk to you for a second?". Jenny had always found Dale to be a nice guy, so she was happy to chat with him. "Sure thing, Dale. What's up?" "Well," he began hesitantly, "I was wondering if I could maybe get a little bit of leeway on my rent this month." By “leeway” Dale was asking to skip paying rent this month and make up for it the following month.

Jenny frowned. Dale had been a model tenant until now - never late on rent and always keeping the apartment clean. "I'm sorry, Dale," she said apologetically, "but I can't do that. Rent is due on the first of the month." He nodded dejectedly and walked back to his apartment. To Landlord Jenny's surprise (but not ours), good guy Dale stops paying rent. 

When Jenny finally filed Dale's eviction papers she discovered the truth. A simple search of the local court's database revealed that Dale had been evicted from several other apartments in the area and was behind on rent everywhere he went. Lesson learned for Jenny - now she screens all her tenants!

Conclusion:

Questioning potential tenants is a key part of the rental process. By asking the right questions, you can get a better idea of who they are and whether or not they would be a good fit for your property. You want quality tenants who will respect and take care of your property. Finding good tenants will help to ensure that your rental property remains a valuable investment. 

By screening applicants, you can avoid potential rental nightmares and ensure that you're getting the best possible tenants for your property. There are some red flags you should watch out for when interviewing potential tenants. If someone seems sketchy or if their credit score isn't high enough, it's best to move on. Bad tenants can cause all sorts of problems, so it's important to take the time to find quality ones.

Tenant screening is an essential part of finding good tenants. A background check will help you see if there are any red flags that you missed in the interview process. You'll also want to look into their credit score and references from previous landlords. This information will help you make a decision about whether or not to rent to them. 

Taking the time to screen your applicants is well worth it in the end. It can save you from many headaches down the road.