Top 8 Qualities Of A Good Tenant

Published 15 November 2022

When looking for a new tenant for your property, it is important that you can find the right fit. Picking the wrong tenant can lead to multiple issues later down the line, even leading to rental disputes and legal action. In this blog, LevelUP will be giving you our top 8 qualities of a good tenant, look out for these, and you will be sure to find the perfect tenant for your property!

Good credit

It is important to complete all relevant credit checks when looking at a potential new tenant. This will show you how reliable the tenant is with paying off debts as well as any outstanding debts that could get in the way of making rent payments every month. This creates various problems, such as having to pursue legal action. No one wants to hand their money away to solicitors and pay court fees. So complete that credit check before getting any tenant to sign the dotted line.

Household income is roughly three times the rent

Another important quality of a good tenant is that they have a household income at least 3 times the rent. This ensures they will have enough income to deal with living expenses. This includes rent, and maintaining a good standard of living. With the upcoming rise in gas prices. You may even want to push this figure up slightly to ensure that the tenant can make monthly rent payments. Again the potential downsides of missed rent payments are something nobody wants to deal with. You can check this by getting confirmation of the tenant’s payslips from the last 3/6 months.

Stable history

The next quality of a good tenant is stable work and rental history. This will ensure that you are renting to someone reliable who will not try and vacate the rental agreement early. High-value tenants won’t regularly be jumping from job to job or between different properties and tenancy agreements. You can find this information by having the potential tenant fill out a work and residency history form for the last 3 years. There is nothing worse than signing a tenant onto a 6-month lease, and they are trying to break it within weeks. They may even try holding rent payments as an incentive to break the agreement.

Background check

This goes with all the checks mentioned previously. Ensuring that you get employer and previous landlord references is a great way to ensure a good tenant is picked. They will be able to tell you about what the tenant is like as a person. Whether they turn up to work on time, pay rent on time, and generally how they have looked after the previous properties they have rented. Make sure to get more than just a previous landlord’s reference, as they may stretch the truth to try and get rid of a difficult tenant.

Cleanliness

How clean is the person that you will be handing the keys to your property? How often will they be willing to clean up any messes such as spillages or general mess? This one can be difficult to gauge besides previous employer and landlord references. However, one sneaky way is to lead the potential tenant out to their car after meeting them to see how clean their car is. Someone who takes pride in their general cleanliness will be a great tenant to rent to.

Notifies you of any maintenance requirements

How annoying would it be if the tenant had a simple maintenance problem, but did not report it due to its supposed harmless nature? This small problem can quickly turn into a big problem, such as a leaking pipe can eventually lead to flooding. It may seem minor at the time; however, the potential risks are not worth it. Regular maintenance is an important part of any property. So if you are receiving no maintenance calls from a tenant, it may be worth having a scheduled check of the property.

Easy to communicate with

Along with paying rent and keeping on top of maintenance requirements. Good communication is vital between tenants and landlords. How easy is the potential tenant to get hold of during the initial stages of the process? How polite are they? These are all important points to focus on when looking for the qualities of a good tenant. We are not suggesting that someone having a bad day is not a reason to rent to them. But it is something to be subconsciously aware of if you are having to pick from a choice of tenants, as is often the case.

Pays rent on time

The most important of our qualities of a good tenant (and one we have touched upon already!) Is that the tenant will pay the rent every month. If this is not likely, then do not even consider the application. Especially to simply ‘get the property off the market.’ The top-quality tenants are out there, and it takes merely a bit of patience and the proper property promotion to find them.

This is where LevelUP can help you. As expert property managers we can take every single one of these headaches off of your hands. Screening tenants? All done. Collecting rent? We’re on it. Being available to sort out maintenance queries? We are all over it. We will look for all of these top tenant qualities and keep you informed along the way.

Contact us today to find out more about how our property management services can help you as a landlord!

Ready to become a rental property expert? Check out our blog on the top 10 features of a profitable rental property.