Knowing how to find great tenants is paramount to the success of your rental property and long term let.

One of the biggest challenges to renting out your property is the most frequent question that we get asked "how to find great tenants".

When we say finding great tenants, we mean the tenants who will only pay on time, communicate when there issues within the property and take great care of the rental property and gardens.

We know that in every property listing responses, there are going to be great potential tenants and the not so great, bu what can you do to ensure that you attract and find great tenants.

In this post we will look at 7 of the main pointers to consider to help you with how to find great tenants.

Preparing Your Property To Let

Before you can begin listing your property to find great tenants, you must ensure that your property is ready, this means making sure that the property is clutter free, nicely decorating and ready for some gorgeous photos to show off your listing, after all the photos are the first thing that will entice the right tenants in the first instance.

Read our 14 Steps Property Checklist here to get the most out of your listing to find great tenants.

Extensive Marketing

Want great tenants? Then you need to market your property extensively so that it gets seen, therefore widening your pool of applicants. Here at Somerset Lettings, we run through a marketing checklist to ensure that we know exactly what we are offering, who are target market is and where they can be found.
Listing a residential property to a couple is a far different listing to that of a single person in a HMO (shared house).

Keep Your Property In Good Order

Once your property is listed, it is good practice to keep your property in good order as it is common for potential tenants to drive around the listed neighbourhoods checking out the area to see if it suits their needs and very often a property that looks appealing from the outside in will attract great tenants.

Keeping your property in good order is also ideal for when we start booking viewings, because although we generally offer an open house day where we will book potential tenants in throughout the day to come and meet and view, very often there will be great potential tenants who ask for another day due to being in the area for relocating, work etc and we may need to arrange at short notice for a viewing.

Pre Qualifying Checks

One of the most beneficial ways of booking in the right potential tenants for viewings is through some basic preliminary checks to ensure that only the right tenants are invited to come and view the property, we call it weeding out the potentials and has the advantage of only ensuring that the viewings are set up and met with the right tenants who are ideal for the property rental.

Meet & Greet

Meeting and greeting tenants is vital. Yes, we do get asked for video walkthroughs during the booking process for viewings which are obliged, but on the basis that they do have to come and view the property in person at a time that suits them. We never let any property to anyone who we have not met in person. 

Why? If you want to find great tenants, then meeting in person is a must. They can be lovely on paper and sound lovely on the phone, but if they turn up in old dirty clothes, unwashed and stinking, would you trust them to take good clean care of your property?

Performance Checks

So you have done the pre application checks, checked them out on viewings, now it is time to find the great tenants out of the ones. who have ticked all of the boxes.

Each and every tenant that comes through our system is thoroughly means checked in terms of meeting that reliability (have they moved frequently), affordability criteria, including income verification, so that there are no nasty surprises later on.

We also are very thorough in making sure that the tenants are referenced thoroughly and this includes guarantors if they have not passed the relevant credit checks due to poor credits, defaults, CCJs.

As a rule, if potential tenants do not meet the criteria that is set to secure our landlord rent guarantee cover, then they will not be accepted.

Why? Over the past few years with the pandemic and where we are rightnow with the full force of inflation, it is paramount that landlords are insuring their tenants against loss of rent, which sadly we have seen in the past, it is not nice.

We work with one of the best award winning rent guarantee companies for only £26/month to ensure that the rent is always paid. You can read more about it here.

Right To Rent Checks

The right to rent legislation demands that all potential tenants can legally rent their property. This will involve them providing documents so that they can prove that they are legally allowed to be in the country and renting.

You can read our Landlords Compliance Guide more about the certain checks and legal compliances that landlords need to have in place before renting their property here

Pet Allowances

Allowing pets into your property has a great advantage, but is something that does worry a lot of landlords.

We always do due diligence on potential tenants who are looking for a tenancy with pets. All tenancies have to fill out a pet policy which enables us to see what pets they have, breeds, if they are house trained etc. Obviously if someone is looking to house reptiles or mould sporing pets, we will have to consider the implications that this would have on the property and the neighbours. 

We do have strict policies in place to tenancies with pets and inspections are done more frequently to ensure that there pets are looked after and taking good care of the property.

However, the majority of the time, we will find that people who have pets tend to be much more considerate people when it comes to taking care of themselves and their surroundings. 

Keeping Great Tenants

Now that you have found great tenants, the thing to do now is to ensure that they stay long term and feel safe and secure within your property.

We always check in with our tenants to ensure that everything is good, as well and ensuring that regular inspections are completed to check the property for any damage, repairs that have been overlooked, damp and just to make sure that the tenants are taking care of the property and that everyone is happy.