Can a Landlord in Fayetteville North Carolina Ask for Bank Account Numbers from Tenants
When thinking about renting a property to a prospective tenant, when you are managing your Fayetteville, North Carolina property on your own, one of the main concerns is how much information can you collect on a potential tenant.
Equally as important, is what information would be best to obtain on a tenant with an approved application, in order to ensure you have a proper way to obtain payment, and enough information in case it is necessary to enforce a judgement against your tenant in a court of law.
As a property owner and real estate investor, you should consider yourself as a short term lender. Your lease agreement with the tenant, although for the use of real property, is actually lending access to property. And if we are to think about the big picture, as a property owner, you are lending access to an asset worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. This lending process, is also done to a stranger, for a period up to a year, and must be based on all the data available to you to make a decision.
In the banking world, the process by which a lender verifies your income, assets, debt, and other details, in order to issue a final approval for a loan is known as underwriting. When you applied for your loan for your house, car, or other purchase, you went through the underwriting process.
Now let’s put this in perspective. You are placing an asset, that you were already underwritten for, in the hands of a tenant. You are essentially giving the tenant access to a huge investment, worth more than a couple hundred thousand dollars. As a property investor in Fayetteville, North Carolina, this should cause you some anxiety if the proper screening process has not occurred.
As you manage your Fayetteville property, you must take every step to ensure that you properly underwrite the applicant for a vacant property. For any tenant in Fayetteville, you have the right to collect information including, but not limited to, names, addresses, social security numbers, employment and personal references, and even bank account and credit card numbers. This information is in addition to the information contained within the applicant’s credit report.
All of this information is necessary to obtain a complete picture of the applicant for a vacancy in your property. Our suggestion is that you are as thorough as the process that you went through when you applied for your home loan. Granted, things that would have disqualified you from obtaining a loan may not apply to whether or not you decide to lease to a potential tenant, but at the end of the day the more information you have, the more you will be able to make in informed decision about who you are renting to.
At Linchpin Property Management, we pride ourselves in our tenant screening process. We believe in our process so much, that we guarantee any tenant we place. Our process provides the landlord with the security of knowing that their property will be taken care of, and tenants will meet their obligations.
To find out more, click the link below to schedule a landlord consultation with us, and see why we are the best property management company in Fayetteville, North Carolina to meet your property management needs.
The Team at Linchpin Property Management