Landlord Lessons - How to Find the Perfect Tenant

August 28, 2020 by Zhen Liang

Finding the perfect tenant not as hot as you think stay tuned to this week's episode of prime. Perhaps TV I promise and be worth it.

This article is transcribed from the video below.

Table of Contents - Landlord Lessons - How to Find the Perfect Tenant

Six Steps To Finding The Perfect Tenant
Landlord Lessons - How to Find the Perfect Tenant

Good day Toronto, welcome to another episode of Prime Property TO, so glad you could join us.

Although it has no relevance to me because I don't have kids right now. It is relevant because right after this week, we start to see a lot more listings and the spring Market will start. Last year was a little bit delayed but let's see what kind of inventory level will be getting this year and shortly.As usual, give me a thumbs up and subscribe to a proper co-channel help spread our message out to local GT investors, much appreciate it guys.

Now, one of the scariest things about real estate investing is generally finding the tenant to cover your care and cost for the property you just bought. This is usually the last step of the entire investing process. So I wanted to give you my tips and tricks in my toolbox to find that perfect tenant. The most nerve-wracking position is before you find a tenant and after you find a good one and right in between where you just buy a property. That's the most nerve-racking. Now, most realtors wouldn't share this with you because I find that you know, they're just trying to get more business out of you but if you know the process whether you decide to hire our team to find the tenant or not. At least you are armed with the knowledge and can sleep easier at night. Or, at the very least be less worried about your first investment property.

Six Steps To Finding The Perfect Tenant

Step One: Have A Great Looking Product

What I mean by that is most of the time your prospective tenants will find you through some kind of online Channel whether it's realtor.ca, MLS, realtors.ca, Kijiji etcetera. So the first impression of your property is going to be photos. That's why I recommend you have a professional photographer to get it done for you. It's roughly around a hundred bucks.

Plus you could also save gas and time travel. However, if you are somewhat of a skilled photographer and can edit the photos yourself using Photoshop, you can always try to do yourself, but I'm a person that believes in paying someone for their work so that you can continue to what you're supposed to do.

Remember you can always reuse these photos in the future when your next tenant moves out and then your next one after that. So it is a very worthwhile investment because you can also write it off for taxes.

Step Two: Good Copy And Advertising

If you have good copywriting skills, this is where you should Flex those muscles. You want to add to stand out and attract the most tenants, don't just list the features hardwood floors or etcetera. You want to talk about the lifestyle, where it's near Transit, schools and etcetera.

Furthermore, you want to advertise on platforms that get a lot of traffic. Using a realtor gives you access to MLS and gives you more exposure but it also costs you money with it, roughly one month rent of commission to hire a realtor. It provides that exposure but it comes at a cost. Here's a quick tip for you what I found is that generally if you have a property for rent over $2,500 it's better to hire a realtor because the level of tenant you'll get on that price point is better. But, if you have properties under 2,000 could you do what do the trick you don't need to hire a realtor?

However, what I would recommend is definitely pay for top adds in the following sites; Kijiji, Craigslist Toronto Rentals and Facebook.

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Step Three: Arranging Property Tours

Most people in Toronto live a very busy life. We're busy doing a lot of things outside of trying to fill a property. If you are not available for showings it can be difficult. And that's one of the reasons people hire Realtors to take care of this.

However, here's my tip for managing that issue.

Do all your showings at the same time. Super key!

If you have multiple interested parties goes at the same time think what it's going to look like, especially for that property highly coveted - Bidding War. If you follow steps one and two to a tee, then you will have a ton of interest in your property and your phone will be ringing like crazy. Here's a tip for managing that phone call. Use a program such as RingCentral or Grasshopper to screen your calls and potential tenants that you meet at the property. You can also change your voicemail saying something like this. This is what I teach a lot of my clients to use. You've reached then I'm going to available right now. If you're inquiring about property X, please note that due to a large amount of Interest, please text me your name and your phone number. I'll be showing this property on month X date X at 2 p.m. Or Sunday month wide 8y at 2 p.m. This way you're doing all your showings on those two times and you only have to do to show the property twice and you'll probably get a tenant for your property. Bam!

Step Four: Tenant Application

Have everyone interested in the property after seeing it submit a rental application a credit check application. This will give you an idea of who your top prospective tenants are. A standard rental application can be found with a simple Google search very simple for credit check I would use a program. I recommend called Narborly. It's free and provides landlords with insights on how good a prospective tenant is. You can just ask the tenant to fill that up.

Step Five: Filter Through The Applications And Pick The Best One

Once you have multiple applications select the top one, sign the Ontario standard lease and again, do a quick google search you'll find that form. It's somewhere. Most people ask about putting certain clauses in the lease because of the law and they want to protect themselves.

You can really do what you want as you wish just understand that none of your clauses are going to hold up in the Landlord Tenant Board if it goes that far. Just an example you can forbid pets but in the Landlord Tenant Board, you can't actually do that.

Step Six: Final Due Diligence

On closing day exchange keys, all post-dated checks, proof of fire, liability, insurance, utility transfer so that they're paying for itself and Bam Bam Wallah. Finding your perfect tenant easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Rinse and repeat for investment property and I hope that shed some light on the entire process. Once you do it the first time although it may seem difficult now it really is not that hard. It's just a little bit overwhelming because it's probably the first time I've heard about it. What I usually recommend to my clients is that if you are worried about finding a tenant hire our team, we'll find that first tenant for you. We'll show you how we do our process which is what I just listed for you so that you can become an independent and confident investor in finding your next perfect tenant until next time guys. Happy real estateing.