Best ways to check backgrounds of tenants?

Question

I'm relatively new to landlording and I don't know much about how to screen tenants the right way. I have two houses rented at the moment. One is a recent purchase and we inherited the tenants who are wonderful. The other is my first house that's been a rental for a couple of years. I picked the tenants because a) they asked me first and b) they seemed like nice people. In other words: the worst possible screening method ever. As it turned out, I was lucky again and they have been great about paying rent on time and taking care of the place but I know I'm asking for trouble if I don't do a better job. So my questions are:

What sources do you use for checking out a tenant? Is just pulling a credit history from Equifax and calling references enough? Where do you find criminal history records and how much do you have to pay for them (if at all?) Do you do social media checks?

I'm hoping to make deal #3 in the next week or two so I should get better at this soon.

What sources do you use for checking out a tenant? Is just pulling a credit history from Equifax and calling references enough? Where do you find criminal history records and how much do you have to pay for them (if at all?) Do you do social media checks?

I'm hoping to make deal #3 in the next week or two so I should get better at this soon.

Alex Hamilton · Answer

The source of felony and misdemeanor criminal information is a county courthouse. The first thing I do is check local/national databases for potential records. Next, I check their Credit Report and Person Search to establish the applicant's address history. Once I have an address history and potential records from the databases, I check with all the county courts directly to find and verify records.

Database searches are relatively inexpensive, but not all counties report to them and the information contained must be verified with a County Search. County Searches are public record, so you can go to the court and obtain them yourself. You could outsource the search to a CRA that will do it for a minimal fee. Some courts also charge an access fee that will likely be passed on to you. Feel free to contact me directly with any questions!

Sarnen Steinbarth · Answer

@Richard - Thanks for the mention.  We don't call references, but all that information is compiled and easily view-able for the landlord with our online applications.  Landlords have the final say - we just help out!

Feel free to message me with any other questions!

Thanks,

Nicole A. · Answer

There's plenty of online services to do background/credit checks. There's also ways you can pre-screen for free before moving to the full paid checks. Search for them on Facebook, Google, etc. Search the local online case records for their names. Things like that.

James Boyer · Answer

On another thread someone suggested landlord station. I used it last week to screen a tenant, worked well.

Steven Gesis · Answer

Hello Brian!

First off, I'd like to say congratulations on your success thus far with your rental properties. It's great to hear you will be expanding soon. Screening tenants is always a difficult process and could sometimes leave you wondering if you're about to make a good decision or not. Some people look at JUST a credit score or JUST the criminal background.

Some of the best advice I can give you is to take EVERYTHING into account when screening a potential tenant. As you said, sometimes luck comes into play, but at least you can brace yourself for some of the bad luck. You must remember this tenant could be signing a lease with you for, 12 months, 24 months, or even longer! You don't want to sign someone for a long time if you're on the fence about how they will be as a tenant.

There is a multiple step process that I like to take when screening for a potential tenant. Some of the areas I look at are

-credit score

-criminal history

-current income

-past rental history

Let me know if you have any questions, we can discuss in more detail.

Brian Barfoot · Answer

Thanks for the ideas everyone. Today's property was kind of a dud. The neighborhood was rough and many of the adjacent houses were vacant so I'm going to keep hunting.

I like the idea of a smartmove or turbotenant kind of site and that's probably the route I'll go. I figure the more digital I can make the application process, the better.

Rhonda Blue · Answer

I set up my properties through cozy.co

It was easy for having prospective tenants fill out the application and then after the initial first screening and showings for the property I could go back into the system and request they pay for a background and credit check. It was up to them to move forward. When I listed the properties for rent through Craigslist and Postlet I included the link so most before they even visited the showing they had already filed out the application. For what I needed it worked well.

I called previous landlords and checked references myself.

Rich Nickel · Answer

Brian

I used smartmove for my tenant screening.  You simply set up your property with them and then add the potential tenants email address.  Prospect gets an email, pays for the screening and you get the report.  The service is free to you.  Lots of venders in this space that work the same way.

As a side note, I require a background check on any adult moving into my property.  So just the wifes background check is not enough for me.  I require the husband to have one as well.  You don't need someone that checks out bringing "fleas" into your fresh property.

Happy landlording!

Rich

Richard Fields · Answer

Check out Turbotenant or one of those company's. They run the background checks and send everything to you. No cost to you, the tenant pays them. Call it an application fee. I don't know if they call the references, but I would do that myself anyway, especially the old landlords.

Best ways to check backgrounds of tenants?

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