Red Flags to Look Out for on Tenant Applications in Las Vegas

Picture this. You’re a landlord in Las Vegas looking for tenants on your brand new rental property. You have a desirable house in a prime location with easy access to the Las Vegas strip. Tenants will be climbing over each other to land this place! But little do you know, there’s more than normal folks out to get into this rental.

You land an applicant with the ideal financials and employment history. Everything goes great initially; the tenant is exceedingly kind during the move in. But then, time for the first month’s rent arrives and no check appears. After more time goes by and failed communication, you realize you’re going to have to evict. Now it’s back to the drawing board after so much lost income.

This is the reality for so many landlords who fail to follow proper tenant screening practices. It’s also another reason that hiring a property manager like Avalon is the right move for your Las Vegas rental. In the meantime, we’ll go over some red flags to look out for and other considerations for when you screen rental applicants.

Key Information for Screening

The first step to catching red flags is being thorough with your screening process. You can’t find a sign a tenant is not the right fit if you aren’t checking every avenue. A thorough financial history, employment history, rental history, and background check are all necessary. Without each of them, it makes it easy for applicants to hide relevant information.

Common Red Flags

• Financial Red Flags: The applicant’s financials are going to be the most relevant to whether or not they can pay rent and the security deposit. If a credit check comes back poor, that’s going to be the easiest way to spot a red flag. Make sure their financial information is consistent as well, and there are no major gaps in their employment history without good reason.
• Rental History Red Flags: How a tenant handled previous leases is a good indicator of how they will handle yours. If they have previous evictions or legal disputes with a landlord, that’s a sign you might be put through the same ordeal. Ask for references from previous landlords and actually check with those references.
• Personal Red Flags: This is where a background check will  come into play. The background check will tell you if they have any criminal charges that would make them a risk to your property or other tenants. When their personal information is submitted incomplete or unverifiable, communicate this to the applicant. If they do not fix this or outright refuse, that’s a sign that there’s something worth concealing.

Additional Considerations

Tenant placement is hard enough on its own. Finding an ideal applicant can make a landlord quick to rush into a lease. But you have to do your due diligence with every application, not just the ones who pop up with easily identifiable red flags. Tenant fraud is a real risk, and they will do everything they can to fly under your radar.

This is why cross referencing their information is so important. If there’s discrepancies between their financial information, employment history, and background check, you or your property manager have to be ready to catch that. If there’s no discrepancies but the application seems “too good to be true,” this is where legitimate references can help you make a decision.

You can also look out for red flags in the way the applicant communicates with you. Many landlords have fallen prey to tenants being overly pushy to rush into a lease. The applicant will approach the application process with a high sense of urgency. They might even offer above the asking price to get into your rental quicker. Veer away from this behavior.

Legal and Ethical Considerations

Within your screening process, it’s important that as you weed out poor tenant applications that you also adhere to legal guidelines. The biggest of which being federal and state level fair housing laws. This prohibits tenants from being discriminated against based on things like race, sex, religion, and disability.

As a Las Vegas landlord, you also have to be aware of Nevada screening laws. Perhaps the most applicable of these dictates how you can conduct a background check on applicants. In order to run a background check in the state of Nevada, a landlord must obtain a signature from the applicant. Without this consent, you’re not authorized to do so.

Some other relevant laws in Nevada affect your application fees and security deposits. In Nevada, there are no limits on what a landlord can charge for an application fee. They are also non-refundable. There is a cap on security deposits however. Security deposits in Nevada cannot amount to no more than 3 months rent. 

Best Practices for Tenant Screening

Proper tenant screening takes longer, but it is designed to decrease the cost of vacancies in your rental. The extra time spent will minimize the risks of missed rent payments, property damage, and evictions. All of this depends on the landlord and/or property manager having a standardized screening process.

Approaching each and every tenant application the same way will ensure that every checkbox is met while legal requirements are being adhered to. Utilize tenant screening software to streamline the process further. This technology is designed to hit on all the points needed for background checks, credit reports, and more.

Protecting Your Property with Proper Screening

Protecting your Las Vegas rental property starts with the way you field your tenants. Remember to always be looking carefully at financial history, rental history, and any personal information that’s within legal standards. Correctly identifying these red flags can save you substantial money on your investment.

Have you had troubles figuring out a tenant screening process on your own? Or maybe just had a bad experience with your current property manager? Avalon Realty and Oaktree Management can help. 

We complete a comprehensive tenant check for all of our owners that includes:

• Credit check complete with FICO score
• Employment verification
• Debt to income ratios
• National eviction history check
• Criminal background history
• Previous landlord references

To learn more about the services we offer, get in contact with our team today.