Letting agency Property Shop Yorkshire undergo an extensive pre-qualification process to find tenants suitable for their landlords' properties before referencing starts.
Finding the most suitable tenant before the referencing process would be ideal for both letting agents and landlords. Not only to help with a landlord’s peace of mind, knowing that they’re letting suitable applicants, but agents can start the referencing process with a level of confidence.
"Our referencing model is a bit different to other agents. We spend a lot of time pre-vetting people," says Ryan Melles, Owner of The Property Shop Yorkshire, an agency focused solely on lettings and property management in Bridlington on the East coast of Yorkshire.
An agency’s tenant pre-qualification process involves several steps, and filtering to find the most suitable tenants early on so landlords can have more confidence in the tenants that move in.
Read our guide for steps letting agents can take before referencing checks:
- Advertise and ask prospective tenants to register
- A call to tenants
- Host viewings for prospective tenants
- Referencing tenants to ensure they're the right fit
Advertise and ask prospective tenants to register
Agents can promote their properties to attract a range of tenants. From creating a well-thought-out advertising plan, whether that's offline with flyers and touting, or digitally with a website and social media.
If all forms of advertisement have a clear way for prospective tenants to contact a letting agent, they can register their interest in a property. Agents then have a bank of databases of tenants who are interested in each property and can start to get to know possible tenants.
Whatever form of advertising a letting agent chooses to showcase their property, there should always be a clear way for prospective tenants to get in touch. Otherwise, a possible prospective tenant will be missed.
Letting agents can also use online portals to advertise properties with a simple, automated response sent to interested tenants who have registered their interest.
“If applicants have clicked through to a property then they tend to just click the automated button for 'I want a viewing, can I have more details?'," says Ryan.
Agencies can use these requests to work out how serious a prospective tenant is for a property. If an agent asks for certain information in their automated message, for example when they would like to view the property, and they don’t reply, agents know whether they want to live in the property or not.
A call to tenants
Phone calls are an ideal way for letting agents to understand how interested a prospective tenant is in renting a property.
Agents can use a phone call to get to know a prospective tenant and their situation. Through a phone call, agents can find out why they want the property, what they like about the area the property is in, and who will also be living there.
Also, a phone call can test how serious a prospective tenant is. If a letting agent calls a phone number twice with no response, the applicant is not serious about renting the property.
"We work through and shortlist until we’ve got three or four that look really good, subject to what they've told us," Ryan explains.
Host viewings for prospective tenants
Hosting in-depth videos and virtual viewings are key for prospective tenants. This is so they can understand a property completely before seeing it in person. Whether they are promoted on an agency's website or social media, using a virtual tour of the property can help the tenant understand their needs.
“We put the videos on YouTube and they’re normally about seven or eight minutes long, so candidates can have a really good look.”
If a tenant has viewed a property tour and believes it's the right property for their situation, a letting agent can invite them to an in-person viewing.
By the time applicants attend a physical viewing, an agency can be certain that they’re not only serious about renting the property but are the right profile of applicants for their landlord.
“Sometimes, we only show one person the property before they sign up and that's because we've done all of that pre-vetting, which is time consuming - but necessary.”
At this point, you can share a referencing checklist with your tenants, so they can prepare and tick off any final criteria before they move through the referencing process.
Referencing tenants to ensure they’re the right fit
Even after completing all the steps, letting agents can’t fully guarantee the prospective tenant is the right fit for the property. Having a comprehensive referencing check will help the letting agent feel confident they are right for the property.
Including comprehensive credit checks with open banking and HMRC, agents won’t need to worry about fraud and relying on document verification.
