How to Screen Tenants for a Rental Property: 5 Checks, One Summary, You Decide
Stop screening tenants from memory. Write your criteria before anyone applies, apply them the same way to everyone in the order applications arrive, and record the reason for each result.
Example criteria (write your own)
- Gross monthly income at least 3× the rent
- Photo ID verified
- Positive reference from the most recent landlord
- No unpaid balance owed to a previous landlord
- Complete application (two recent pay stubs + signed consent)
Never used: race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status, disability, or any other protected characteristic. Check local rules (e.g. source-of-income and criminal-history limits) before you write criteria. Not legal advice.
The summary
One line per criterion — green, yellow or red — with the evidence. Yellow is a question (a missing pay stub), not a no.
A person decides
Approve · Ask for what's missing · Decline (citing the written criterion). Any email to the applicant is a draft until you click send.
Free checklist + summary template: comment SCREEN on the video or go to upnexs.com/screen.
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