Hey, guys, Max here. We're gonna go over the four questions to propose to potential tenants, roommates and romantic interests.

Now let me preface this post with this: the questions are going to sound a little different speaking to a potential tenant compared to romantic interest. But I figured out four questions that are pretty universal.

Asking questions really helps you see who a person is and who they're going to be. And that certainly matters when you're screening out people you're going to have in your life, even though it's just a tenant you only hear from once per month or romantic interest you may see every single day. These are universal questions you can apply to pretty much every single person you meet in your life. Let's go.

QUESTION 1

How is your budget now?

This is not something you ask somebody immediately, but with the tenant, for instance, you can talk to me a little about your work situation, what you do for a living, how much money you make. Those are all pretty standard questions.

This is helpful because if you're a person like me who likes budgeting and being debt free and doing things like that. And that's just a goal.

So if someone loves eating out and buying designer bags and going to events, that's great, it's just not something I do on a weekly or monthly basis.

So figuring out a romantic interest if they have different goals than you and specifically with finances, it can really help you figure out whether they're going to be a good fit or not.

QUESTION 2

How long have you worked at your job now?

Tenants are pretty easy. You want to figure out if they have longevity. If they have longevity, they're probably going to have the rent for you every single first of the month.

Romantic interests are a little bit different. This just shows that either they are a hopper, meaning they bunny hop from job to job to job, which may give you an indication that they may have hop from relationship to relationship to relationship.

This question can give you a little bit of insight on how they see working in a relationship with people and how they see work in general, which is good to know, because someone who's a deadbeat boyfriend or girlfriend and always needs money is no good. I promise you.

QUESTION 3

What are your long term plans?

This really helps you see whether a tenant is going to be a long term tenant or short term tenant. Personally, for my tenants, I do month to month leases, so I don't want anybody to be in my home that doesn't want to be there. If they don't want to be there, that means they're going to start doing funky things. People get really funny really fast when they don't want to be in a place. So if you lock them down for a whole year, that opens you up to a lot more problems.

And yes, there's other side of the coin.  Having a long term lease is good because the money is going to be there. However, I have had the most success with month to month leases.

It makes it so easy, no commitment. The less commitments and expectations you can put on a tenant, the more likely they are going to be good.

With regards to romantic interests, asking this is really important because if their long term vision is to have seven and a half kids and live in a big mansion and you're someone who is part of the tiny house movement and doesn't want any kids and want to live with your cats the rest of your life, that person may not be the one for you.

You can figure out really fast whether it's going to be a potential fit or not. Nothing wrong with the cats, love the cats. But if there's a big clash in long term goals, kids and finances are the two reasons most people end up in a divorce situation. So if you can avoid both of those or figure out in the beginning what's on the table and what's off the table, it really can save everyone's time, energy and of course, no heartbreak, which, coming from someone who's been heartbroken, it's no fun.

QUESTION 4

Do you have any family in the area and do you speak with them or spend time with them now?

I asked this for the tenants straight up. Personally, I like to be direct in my communication.

Figuring out as a tenant if they have family in the area might mean they're more invested in the area, as opposed to I'm here for two months on a job search or whatever.

Whatever it is, they may be less likely to wrong you, but this question is especially applicable for romantic interests. If someone doesn't have a relationship with their parents by choice and they're alive, I always question what the issue is. Not because I want to judge and not because I really want to know their business, but because family is a really important thing.

Family is an important thing to me, whether it be your physical family, your Church, family, any family whatsoever.

But family is important. I truly do believe people can change. There's always second chances. I've been given 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 100 chances in my life and I realized that I'm also called to give that in return. 

So someone who's written off their family and moved on that gives me a significant red flag and need for discussion would be very much necessary for me.