Reasonable fee for tenant screening

[Jerry Rubinow]

I have a tenant that I'm letting out of her lease early - she is one of three people collectively renting a house. In exchange, she is going to locate a replacement that is acceptable to the other tenants and will pass a tenant screening.

Initially I was going to have the realtor I used for initially finding and screening the current tenants to screen this new person. That realtor said the fee for screening would be a third of a months rent, which I'd pass on to the exiting tenant.

The tenant feels this amount is excessive and asked if it would be acceptable for her to locate a different local realtor to do the screening, assuming another would change a substantially lower fee.

So my questions are:

1. What kind of things does a screening typically consist of?

2. Is $600 or $700 an excessive fee to charge?

3. Do I have any obligation to have the original realtor do the screening?

4. What kind of things are essential to include on a screening?

Thanks,

Jerry