Every experienced landlord has made at least one of these.
The number one mistake across all experience levels. The property is empty, mortgage is due, and you approve the first applicant who seems okay. A $300 weekly vacancy cost feels urgent. But a bad tenant costs $3,000-$7,000 in lost rent, legal fees, and turnover. A week of vacancy is always cheaper than an eviction. Always.
Screening the first applicant thoroughly then relaxing standards for the next one. Waiving the credit minimum for someone who "seems responsible." Accepting verbal income statements from one applicant while requiring documents from another. Every inconsistency weakens your process and creates Fair Housing exposure. Write criteria down. Follow them every time.
Reference calls take 15-20 minutes and reveal information no report captures. How the tenant treated the property, whether they communicated well, whether the landlord would rent to them again. The call is also where you catch fabricated references. These discoveries only happen if you make the calls.
An applicant who shows up late, hasn't completed the application, asks to waive the background check, and wants to move in tomorrow is waving red flags. But if their credit score is 700, many landlords ignore the behavior and approve based on the number. Both data sources matter.
The thread connecting all mistakes is abandoning the process. Build it once and follow it without exception. Check every application, watch for red flags, and make decisions based on complete data. For additional tools, compare provider options.
If it's not written down, it didn't happen. Document every decision with criteria applied, data collected, and reasoning. Keep files for at least three years. The 30 minutes spent documenting saves thousands in legal defense if a denied applicant files a complaint.