Screening Issues: Unresponsive landlords and dealing with "The Work Number" for VOE

[Luis Pereiro]

Hello, I'm going through my first screening process with potential tenants. I have come across a couple issues. One poor applicant is having both. I have tried multiple times to reach the property management company. I seem to either get hung up on before I can even talk to anyone (they pick up, I hear them chatting in the background, then hangup without saying anything) or I leave voicemails that do not get returned. I also now have 2 applicants where their job's HR department refuses to speak with me and direct me to www.TheWorkNumber.com for a VOE. Now this site charges you $27.95 or $34.95 to access the information each time you verify an applicant. One poor couple is experiencing both issues. One of their main complaints for moving is poor property management. I can see why. Has anyone experienced this? I feel like it is justifiable reason to disqualify the applicant since I am unable to verify. But seems wrong because it is not their fault. I would like to hear other landlord's opinions. Thank you for taking time to read.

[David Borden]

Employment verification and landlord references are important, but they are clearly secondary to credit score. If someone has a great credit score you are probably ok with not getting the landlord reference or employment verification as this person has shown a history of paying on time. If you have a tenant with a great score, don't lose them because you can't get the verifications. If your tenant has poor credit it is much more important to get the landlord and employment verifications. If the tenant has poor credit, and you can't get the verifications, I would move on to someone else. It's rarely worth the risk.

I attend the Transunion Tenant Screening conference every year. Here are the results of their predictive credit model. You can use their score or any other bureau through one of their products or get the FICO score from a lot of providers. They are very similar. These numbers show the risk of rental default based on the applicants score and the income to rent ratio. As you can see, the score is the best predictor of rental performance, even more so than income...