Basics of Property Management: Screening Potential Tenants
When Buying a Home, Have Your Agent Provide You with This Neighborhood Data
Jesse Obrien
Partnering with a real estate agent when you plan to buy a home is ideal for a number of reasons. One of the benefits of this partnership is that your agent can provide you with data that can be difficult to get on your own. While you can count on learning all the relevant details about the home you're considering, you should specifically ask your agent to dig up some information about the community in which the home is located. Taking a look at this information and evaluating it alongside the home can help you decide whether you move forward with an offer or to keep looking. Here is some neighborhood data to ask about.
Property Value Trends
Your real estate agent will be able to provide you with data concerning trends in local property values. This data will include information about not only the house you're interested in and also about the houses in the immediate area. This information will reveal if property values are increasing or decreasing in the neighborhood and at what percentage. You can then talk to your agent about whether this growth is indicative of the overall growth in the city or if it is slower or faster than the norm.
Crime Statistics
Crime data is also relevant when you're considering buying a home in a particular neighborhood. You can rely on your real estate agent to put together some details in this regard. He or she can pull data from the local police department that looks at crime trends in the area. You'll see the incidences of property crimes and vehicle break-ins, both of which can be influential when you're considering whether you wish to move to the area. For example, if a particular neighborhood has a lower rate of home break-ins than the overall city, this can be a desirable place to live.
Resident Demographics
Using information pulled from census reports, your real estate agent can also provide you with some demographic information about the neighborhood. These details could include the average family size, average family income, and other similar bits of information. You can use this to your advantage in several ways. For example, if you have young children and you want them to have peers in the neighborhood, it can be ideal to move into a neighborhood that has large family sizes, as this indicates that there will be children in the area.
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For the last several years, I've used a property management firm to help with my rental properties. One of the tasks that they handle for me is screening applicants who would like to move into one of my vacant units. Their expertise has helped me lower my tenant turnover and find people who want to stay with me for years. Part of the process is a tenant screening credit check. Before any further contact takes place, my manager orders credit reports from at least two agencies. That is enough to tell us if an applicant is a good financial risk. Assuming the references work out, I meet the candidate and make the final decision. If you own rental properties, let me tell you more about the benefits of having a property manager. I'm betting you'll find this type of arrangement will work for you too.