Keep the existing tenant?

[Matthew Coleman]

I just put an offer in on my first rental property. There is an existing tenant that is currently on a six month lease, as the owner couldn't sell when she listed the property (it is now off the market but she's accepting offers- I'm hoping for a great deal!). Anyway, I'm waiting to hear back from my agent on getting the current lease and rental history. From what I can tell, the tenant should have about two to three months left on their lease, and very well may want to stay.

My question for BP is, if the tenant does want to stay, should I conduct a full screening as if I were looking for new tenants? Should I go ahead and do a full background/credit check? One of the reasons I am so interested in this property is that it does have a tenant in place, but I'm not sure how much the current property manager vetted the tenant. The owner is using a property manager, so I'm assuming they did a normal vetting process. I'm not sure about the privacy laws and such (I'm in Georgia).

Any thoughts?