If you've worked in the property management world for some time, you've likely seen blog posts and news articles about the best ways to avoid bad tenants. There are countless pieces online about techniques to weed out the bad tenants from your stack of applicants, but few articles get to the real heart of the issue: simply put, bad landlords attract bad tenants.
That's not to say, of course, that even the best landlords don't sometimes encounter bad tenants. Cal Bay Property Management's Scott Safadi acknowledges that even the most experienced of property managers can allow bad tenants to slip under their radar on occasion. The reality is, though, that most seasoned landlords know that you get out what you put in.
Bad Landlords Fail to Do Their Homework
The easiest way to prevent bad tenants from moving in is to do a thorough background check on each applicant before approving their move in date. Bad tenants don't appear from out of nowhere, and chances are good they'll have a poor credit score, history of misbehavior at other properties and a job history that's full of short-term positions. While none of these warning signs is necessarily proof that someone will be a bad tenant, they are certainly red flags about whether a person is responsible or not.
Fail to do your background checks and thoroughly vet your tenants and you could be inviting a bad tenant to move into your community. Once the lease is signed, it's a long year ahead to contend with them.
Bad Landlords Ignore Tenant Requests
When a tenant makes a request, reasonable or unreasonable, a good landlord hears them out and offers them a solution or a denial. Either way, tenants need explanations for your decisions or they'll feel powerless and not heard. This sense of powerlessness can lead to general apathy about where they live. Good tenants, on the other hand, take care of their living space because they like and respect their landlords. They want to keep their home nice for their own purposes, but also because they want to respect your property and by extension, you.
Bad Landlords Look the Other Way
Attention to detail can get you far as a landlord, but failure to pay enough attention can land you in hot water with your tenants. Whether you have laziness or the fact that you just aren't detail-oriented to blame, bad landlords who look the other way on tenant violations create more trouble for themselves.
- Scott Safadi, Cal Bay Property Management
