The 10,000 Dollar Tenant Screening Mistake

Jane owns a condo in The Bay Area and she recently accepted a job as an HR manager in Los Angeles. Instead of selling her condo, Jane thought it’d be a good idea to keep it as an investment and rent it out.

Jane started posting ads and showing it to tenants. After several weekends of showing she received an application.

Jane read some tenant screening articles online and thought “How hard can it be to screen a tenant? I interview people every day. I can smell a bad character from a mile away.”

Jane was very excited about this applicant Sam because he could move-in in just 8 days.

She picked up the phone and called Sam’s employer to verify his income. After being transferred 3 times, she was told to wait for a callback.

Jane also called Sam’s previous landlords for a quick reference but nobody answered for 5 consecutive days.

One week has passed and Jane was still unable to speak to the employer or the landlord. Sam ran out of patience and called for a status update. Sam said he had to either move in or move onto another unit.

Sam seemed like a nice guy and everything on the application looked good to Jane. Although Jane hadn’t verified his employment and landlord references, she took a chance on him out of fear of losing this quick-move-in tenant.

Everything was great for two months then Sam started to pay rent late. On the 5th month Jane didn’t receive rent at all. Sam became unresponsive, and even changed the locks.

Jane met up with her friend Tracey to vent out her frustrations. Seeing from a fresh pair of eyes, Tracey pointed out that Jane should’ve hired a professional property management company and this nightmare could’ve been avoided. Tracey shared that her property manager from the Cal Agents thoroughly screened her tenant in just 3 days.

With the help of an eviction lawyer, Jane was finally able to evict her tenant after a lengthy 2-month battle. 

Starting from square one, Jane is smarter this time. She hired the Cal Agents to lease and manage it. 

If Jane had done that from the start, she could have received 3 more months of rent and saved thousands in legal fees.

After learning about Jane’s situation, the Cal Agents quickly matched a tenant in their database for Jane. Not only did they save Jane weeks of showing time, but the new applicant was  verified in just 3 days.

The secret? The cal agents have dedicated staff to handle credit check, landlord reference check, and employment verification. They would track down those references and ensure the candidate qualifies. The screening process is in compliance with the fair housing act and anti-discrimination laws. Best of all? Jane didn’t have to make a single call.

Jane is now enjoying her new job in Los Angeles while rent shows up in her bank every month. Call the Cal Agents Real Estate to learn how you can protect your investment and have a worry-free screening of your tenants!