How To Persuade A Landlord To Choose You

In this tight apartment market, the competition between prospective tenants is keen. Is there anything you can do to encourage a landlord to choose you?

Indeed there is, say landlords and others connected to the rental business. Their tips:

-- Know whether you have the income to qualify. "People need to make three times the rent," says West Seattle apartment manager Barbara Boe. That can come from anything legal: wages, pensions, Social Security, child support, parental support, investments.

-- Look like a good neighbor. "You want to come well groomed; you want to present your best side," offers Lora Messinger, who co-manages a Bellevue complex. Adds Laura May Abraham, manager of a Queen Anne complex: "The person's demeanor is a great measure of what kind of tenant you'll have. We're basically looking for someone who will pay the rent and appreciate the property - and who will let other tenants sleep at night."

-- Come prepared with names, addresses, phone numbers of current and previous employers and landlords, as well as picture identification and Social Security cards for every adult who will be listed on the lease. A current pay stub can be useful, too.

-- Fill out rental applications completely and accurately. "If prospective tenants don't fill an application out completely they'll be rejected on that basis alone," says tenant screener Jim Liles.

-- Have a strong employment and rental record. "No. 1 is

employment," says Abraham. "If the employment is pretty stable, the person looks stable. Then the residence history. If it's stable, you know you have someone who's more likely to stay for two or three years." Still, Abraham says she's sympathetic toward people who've been downsized or outsized on the job market and have a spotty job history. Then "a good rental history can offset a bad job history."

-- Expect that the landlord will run a check on you - uncovering everything from a complete credit history to past evictions to brushes with the law. And past landlords will be called, too.

-- "The most important thing is to have a good credit report," says Liles, operations manager of Tenant Screening Services in Tacoma, one of several firms that will do background checks. Liles says it's very common for landlords, even those who only rent out a single house or duplex, to use his firm to process applications. Usually they pass the cost of the background check on to tenants; the charge depends on the number of items the landlord wants checked.

-- "If you've got something derogatory on your credit report, clean it up," Liles advises. "If you have a bad debt pay it off. If you go through bankruptcy try to make payments (on debts, rather than discharging them). And don't even think about trying to (cheat) an apartment because if another one sees that on your report, there's no way they'll rent to you."

And finally, make sure you always leave previous rentals "cleaned, nothing damaged, and all the paperwork done completely," Liles advises.

New landlords want that in a tenant.