I use to use craigslist, but of lately Craigslist is filled with sketchy people… So my friend recommended and I used Zillow. It’s free. And I like how it automatically cross posts on two other websites….
My listingsnusually include something like
“Must provide proof of verifiable monthly income of 2x monthly rent and a credit score of 750 or above, no exceptions. Must provide proof of renter’s insurance before move in date, no smoking and no pets”
Although I never ask directly, tenants with impeccable background usually volunteer information that they are such and are usually the first to respond.
They usually say something like. “Hi, my name is X, my credit score is 750+, I make X working at employer Y for Z years”….By them doing that, it makes your job a lot easier.
For starters, if they volunteered the information that they work at a major company like Intel, Intuit, Qualcomm, County of San Diego,whatever….Employment/income verification is a walk in the park with the company….And you probably don’t need to do a background check, since that large employer already did it for you…..Chances are you only need to do a credit check with something like Experian tenant check.
The sketchier applicants usually don’t say anything or try to say something to get around rules or are professional renters trying to get you to make a mistake by saying something that can be construed as discrimination. For example: “I have an emotional support animal that doesn’t count as a traditional pet….it’s a pitbull BTW”…Yes, I shit you not. This is where that movie trailer tagline is good advice….. “silence is golden”. run far far away.
Price your unit well, and you shouldn’t have a problem getting a good pool of good applicants. That’s where I use craigslist as a “feeler post”… I’ll use craigslist to post rental in the general location with general pictures not specific to my property and noty specific address just to see how many responses I get within a 5 day window. İf you get slammed with a lot of replies within 24 hours, you priced it to low. İf you only get 1-2 responses over 5 days, you priced it too high. You can adjust it accordingly until you get a decent flow of interest..Then you can use that price on your real posting on Zillow.
This is also what I did before buying a rental property in a given location. Its a good test to see how much you really can fetch for rent.
Renters be aware, a lot of postings on Craigslist aren’t real for this reason.
a slightly related topic. When you are renting something out, get a “burner” email address and phone number from something like Google voice. That way , when you finally rented the place out, you don’t need to deal with any of the applicants that you rejected who might be coocoo… you simply throw away your burner email address and phone number. Kinda like what you should do when you buy a new car or if you planning to sign up for a online hookup website like tinder or bumble, and never want to talk to that person again (obviously not speaking from experience…just some tricks I learned from some of my single women friends) lol…..
