People in North Carolina who are considering becoming residential landlords for the first time will want to educate themselves on a variety of topics. Doing some work on the front end to learn about different aspects of residential leasing may well help to prevent some problems down the road. While many would-be landlords know that they need to screen their potential tenants, they may not know exactly what to look for in the process.
Realty Times explains that thorough screening can not only protect your investment by hopefully ensuring that the person who lives in your home does not cause serious damage, but it may also help your neighbors by preventing them from having to deal with a difficult person in their area. A background check that reveals something about a person that leads you to reject their rental application may also prove useful if they were to try and assert that your refusal to rent to them was based on racial or some other form of discrimination.
Forbes suggests that landlords should educate themselves about various laws governing landlord-tenant matters. These laws include municipal, state and federal laws. Knowing what the various laws allow or ban in terms of your actions as a landlord may go a long way toward helping you prevent an inadvertent error that could be costly.
When it comes to references, it is important to check not only backgrounds for criminal records but credit histories, personal references and work references as well. All of these things together provide a view into the person or persons being considered as tenants and can help a landlord make a good decision.
