Renting an apartment or a house to a potential tenant is almost as much of an investment as purchasing the property itself. Have a good tenant is like a heaven sent blessing. Having a bad one can make your life a living hell and cost you dearly financially and otherwise. A good tenant is so much more than someone who pays their rent on time.

They are proactive in helping with maintaining the property and making you aware of problems. They keep their house clean. They do not have unauthorized animals making messes. A bad tenant can ruin an apartment or a house. They can cost you time and money that you are not even aware of until it is too late. Running a background check on a tenant is a good idea to protect yourself.

There are a few components to running a check on someone. The first one is very basic. Meet the person and interview them. Go with your gut instinct. A very good practice is to meet the prospective tenant at their current residence. Look around and see what you think of the way the place has been kept. Do they have pets? Have their children marked all over the walls? Is the carpet a wreck? How long have they lived there?

Contact the current landlord and ask questions. While the land lord cannot give you some information the following are pretty standard questions they are allowed to answer: the dates the tenant has occupied the residence, the number of times the tenant has been late on their rent payment and if eviction has ever been filed. In some cases running a credit check is a good idea.

While most of the time in these poor economic conditions, a persons credit is not going to look great, there are certain red flags that should be considered. Have they been on time with their utility payments? Do they have a job that you can verify and is the income verifiable? Usually a person who cannot successfully keep their water on will not have the funds to pay rent.

Running a criminal background check is also important. You need to know what kind of person you are trusting to care for your property. What kind of people are they known to consort with? Having a rough crowd in a neighborhood drastically decreases property values and that will hurt your investment in the long run. Checking out the person you intend to rent to just makes sound economic and investment sense.