how to run tenant's credit score?

[Vinh Nguyen]

Hi, what's the best site to get a tenant's credit score? and is it free? 

Also, is it important to check criminal history? if yes, what's the site to do so?

Thank you! 

[Joe Splitrock]

@Vinh Nguyen several good suggestions where offered. Be aware that there are many rental property manager websites you can use for screening. They all use one of the major credit agencies. No matter which credit agency they use, it should return similar information. The three credit bureaus are TransUnion, Experian and Equifax

Hard pull versus soft pull: 

A hard pull is when you pull credit on someone. This is when you are providing the persons name, social security number and payment to a credit screening agency. The hard pull shows up on their credit report. A hard pull has a negative effect on their credit score. A soft pull is when the tenant requests their own credit report. They provide their information to the credit agency and they pay. They agree to SHARE it with you. The screening service provides a copy directly to you AFTER the tenant has seen it themselves. The other advantage of a soft pull is it removes you from certain data handling and credit screening laws. If you do a hard pull and reject someone based on that pull, you are required to provide a letter explaining why they were rejected. If you do a soft pull, the applicant knows exactly what you see. Most every service uses soft pull, so as long as you are not typing in the applicants social security number or paying, it should be soft pull. Avoid hard pull.

Here is a summary of services mentioned in this thread:

Smartmove is tenant screening provided directly by a credit reporting company, TransUnion. One advantage of using their service is that TransUnion is a well know and trusted company. This is a soft pull service.

Cozy is an application, credit screening and rent collection service. Be aware that Cozy is no longer accepting new customers. They were acquired by CoStar Group and they are redirecting customers to Apartments.com. The advantage of Apartments.com is they also offer a listing service to advertise properties with a decent amount traffic. Apartments.com uses TransUnion for soft pull credit reports, so you will get the identical report you would get through Smartmove. Cozy uses Experian for credit reporting, so existing users setup on Cozy are getting Experian credit reports. There is not much difference between TransUnion and Experian credit reports. Bottom line is you cannot sign up with Cozy, so it will be Apartments.com. In addition to listing your property on Apartments.com, you can also accept applications and collect rent. Just a note for people already using Cozy, they will be moving all their accounts over to Apartments.com this year some time. I was told this directly by Apartments.com.

RentPrep is an application, credit screening and rent collection service. They also use TransUnion for soft pulls.

Rentspree is an application and credit screening service. They also use TransUnion for soft pulls. I don't think they offer rent collection.

Myrental is just for application and credit screening services. They don't disclose who they run credit through, other than saying one of the big three.

Zillow is a listing service, application services, credit screening and rent collection service. Zillow is comparable to Apartments.com (Cozy). Zillow soft pulls their credit reports through Experian similar to Cozy.

Summary: 

I personally use Cozy, which gives me Experian credit reports. I have been happy with the information provided. As I mentioned, Cozy is pushing people over to Apartments.com, so I will end up there in the next year. I like using Cozy because tenants sign up one time and use the same account for rent collection. If you use Smartmove, you still need to set the tenant up someplace else if you are collecting rent online (you want to collect rent online). You may notice I added Zillow as an option in the services I summarized. They are newer to the screening and rent collection business, but Zillow is the number one place for listing rental properties. 

If I was shopping services today, I would compare Apartments.com and Zillow. They are the only places where you can list a property (and actually generate viewing traffic), accept applications, do credit and background screening and collect rent. The actual credit reports are not going to be much different. You are going to get a TransUnion or Experian report most likely whomever you use. I like the one-stop shop benefit, because managing less services is a time saver.