If you are in a position where you are considering renting out your home then you may be very concerned that you might have trouble finding the right tenants. It is a tricky job and sometimes best left to a rental agency.

If you want to do it yourself it is important to make sure that you take note of the following points. The last thing you want is to discover your perfect tenant is in fact, your worst nightmare.

• Probably the easiest way to get a tenant without having to do anything at all is to simply leave it up to a letting agency. While they will do the leg work, they can be expensive. However they will often sell packages which guarantee your rent will be paid even if the house is unoccupied. For peace of mind a letting agency is a good move.

• If you would rather do some of the work yourself, you can get a professional tracing company to check out your potential tenants. They will do a background check for any previous convictions, any past difficulties with landlords or not paying rent, any financial problems they have had. They may have access to information sources which the average person may not and are well worth their fee.

• You can always go it alone and search for these pieces of information yourself. You should get as much information from the tenant as possible and check it all. This includes a few payslips, bank statements and references. Follow all of them up by calling their employer to be sure they are still employed and checking previous landlords to see why they left their last property.

• Pay for a credit reference search through an agency as a bare minimum. This will list their financial commitments and give you an idea of how they manage their finances

• Always conduct a face to face interview with your tenant to see how they come across. If you can do this in their current home you will get an idea as to how they keep their property.

Finally always remember that you need to be a good landlord in order to keep good tenants. Once you have found a tenant who pays their rent on time and looks after your property you should do all you can to keep them. This means sticking to your tenancy agreement and following up any problems as soon as you can.