Tempe Property Management and Tenant Prequalification

Many people who are just getting started in real estate investing are confused by various Tempe property management practices such as tenant prequalification...or prescreening services. A lot of these new investors feel that prescreening or prequalifying tenants is considered as discriminating. While it's true that investors can get in trouble for discriminating against certain types of prospective tenants, the process of prescreening isn't considered discrimination. The main reason is that prescreening potential applicants actually protects you and your Tempe property managers. 

Most professional Tempe property management firms prescreen all applicants that come through to help ensure their rental properties are filled with good, reliable renters. The actual process of prequalifying applicants involves a number of things such as running criminal screens, background checks, verifying rental histories, checking on current and past employment claims, etc. All of this information will provide you, or your property managers in Tempe, with a good picture of the type of person the applicant is.

The key to making sure you aren't slapped with a discrimination lawsuit by a rejected applicant is to apply the same process and criteria to all applicants. Professional Tempe property management firms know that what they do to one applicant must be done to all applicants. This alone shows that you aren't doing anything extraneous for one applicant because you're looking for a reason to reject him/her. Instead, you're running every applicant through the same process.

Another thing you have to be careful of when providing property management in Tempe is that your prescreening process is in compliance with legitimate rental policies. Sometimes owners/managers get too specific in the qualities they seek in renters. For instance, if an owner/manager is specific about leasing to only married couples, heterosexual couples or couples of a specific race, this is obvious discrimination. However, if you ask every interested person to fill out an application and run each application through the same prescreening process, you shouldn't have anything to worry about.