If you’re a landlord trying to place your own tenants into your income property, you’ve likely dealt with the anxiety that comes with trying to find the perfect tenant. It’s hard to really know if you can trust someone to take care of your home and pay you monthly rent on time after a few short initial meetings.
Background checks are crucial to determine if the person who just inquired about your property for rent will be a good fit.
If you’re an income property owner in Canada, here are 3 ways to do a credible search on your next potential tenant:
1. Equifax— www.equifax.com
When you run a credit check on tenants you learn the ‘cold hard truth’ about the person you are renting to. Credit checks are the best way to ascertain if someone is capable (and in the habit) of paying their bills on time. An Equifax credit check contains an archive of your potential tenant’s bills and failures to pay. It’ll let you know if they’ve ‘ripped off’ anyone in the past. Good tenants appreciate landlords who run credit checks because it helps them get accepted to rent the properties they want.
2. TVS: Tenant verification service — https://www.tenantverification.ca/
Tenant screening and tenant background checks should include a tenant check from TVS. Reporting Rent Payments is easy, simple and effective in getting tenants to pay rent on time. Rent payments are reported to Equifax for addition to Tenant’s credit report.
3. Social media — www.facebook.com, www.instagram.com, www.google.com
The internet is a helpful tool for carrying out a tenant background search. You can use large search engines, such as Google, Yahoo or Internet Explorer to verify the identity of a prospective tenant. You can also use popular social networks to find out what your potential tenant has put on their personal profiles. There is often a readily available supply of information online. Simply type in their names and see what comes up.
If this sounds like way too much work and you’d like to have your property managed for you, learn more about our property management services here.
If you have any questions for us, contact us here.
Written By: Heather LePage: Tilt Property Group’s Operations Specialist
