Tenant Screening Questions & Phone Script

[macbwilson]

Hey Folks,

I put together a video on tenant screening questions, common objections and some bonus pro-tips on how reduce time and avoid no show viewings.

It's based on personal experience and the best advice I collect from the REIN community over the years and trust me, there are some brilliant real estate investors that are second to none.

If you use different questions please share them and your reasoning!

 

[Randall19113]

Excellent video Mackenzie. I found this video well worth my time. Great pre-screening questions; that's a lot of information gathered right there. I really enjoyed the bonus tips. I have already been using the second one in regards to booking viewings 15 minutes apart.

Randall Hoeber

 

[macbwilson]

Hey Randall,

Thank you so much for the kind words. It took some effort to put together the video so it quite rewarding to hear that feedback. Thank you.

One other question I have been playing with is asking a potential tenant is how they currently pay rent. What I am looking for here is another data point to validate if they are telling the truth or not.

My thought process is to ask this question early on and catch them off guard before they can think of lie.

Ideally they answer with eTransfers. Then later on as you get further into the tenant screening process and maybe you need more info to make a confident decision. You could ask them for proof of rent payment. Knowing ahead of time it was paid by eTransfer for example means they should be able to easily forward you the confirmation emails quickly.

If you hear or get excuses at this stage then it's best to move on.

Cheers!
MacKenzie

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

 

[Martin1968]

Hey Randall,

Thank you so much for the kind words. It took some effort to put together the video so it quite rewarding to hear that feedback. Thank you.

One other question I have been playing with is asking a potential tenant is how they currently pay rent. What I am looking for here is another data point to validate if they are telling the truth or not.

My thought process is to ask this question early on and catch them off guard before they can think of lie.

Ideally they answer with eTransfers. Then later on as you get further into the tenant screening process and maybe you need more info to make a confident decision. You could ask them for proof of rent payment. Knowing ahead of time it was paid by eTransfer for example means they should be able to easily forward you the confirmation emails quickly.

If you hear or get excuses at this stage then it's best to move on.

Cheers!
MacKenzie

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

Thanks for the video! I work along the same line. No use to run out to do a showing for every request. Knowing who you are going to show your units to and having a good idea wether someone will qualify when completing the application, indeed saves a ton of time.

One remark I would want to make about how they pay the rent, it doesn’t really matter to me how other landlords do it, I collect all my rents by PAD and future tenants simply have no choice in that matter.
A better question to ask IMO, wether by phone or text is, that if you were to ask their current landlord for a reference, and ask him specifically about how often they were late on their payments, what would their current landlord tell me?
I found that in virtually every situation tenants will speak the thruth, simply because they know you will be contacting their current landlord. A quick ‘never late’ or a stumbling ‘uh I think I was late once’ will already give you a good idea. (Even though I use Naborly I still check references)

Other then that, your video will be very helpful for many landlords. Experience and
People knowledge will do the rest.

 

[macbwilson]

A better question to ask IMO, wether by phone or text is, that if you were to ask their current landlord for a reference, and ask him specifically about how often they were late on their payments, what would their current landlord tell me?
I found that in virtually every situation tenants will speak the thruth, simply because they know you will be contacting their current landlord. A quick ‘never late’ or a stumbling ‘uh I think I was late once’ will already give you a good idea.

Hey Martin, this line of questioning asking about what their previous landlord would say is gold and I've added it to my toolbox. Thank you.

Two observations you have done well here:

1. It's direct and to the point. This shows the tenant you are serious and straight forward in your screening process. It also sets the right tone going forward.
2. The question is open-ended which is great because it forces the prospective tenant to explain themselves setting call for more opportunities to dig further in the conversation if needed.

This achieves the result I was trying to go for with the previous payment type but in a much more elegant manner.

Great share Martin!