SmartMove vs RentPrep

[Kendra Mattson]

I've used SmartMove for my last 3 tenants and have had good experiences with all of them, but I'm currently trying to screen a tenant with SmartMove and 1) I can't tell if I'm still receiving a BP discount because it doesn't tell me how much the reports cost (the tenant pays) and 2) the tenant suggested RentPrep as a better alternative for future screenings (which quite frankly makes me trust RentPrep less, but I'm open to the possibility). Has anyone had experience with both?

[Stephen White]

Hey guys full disclosure, I own RentPrep. We carry the SmartMove product, so it's the exact same data from Transunion. Since we are a screening company, you have some other product options too. But, if you are ordering SmartMove, the only difference is you're talking with our FCRA Certified Screeners if you have questions about the data you get back on a report. I'm not pitching RentPrep over BP, just pointing out it's the same product to clear up any confusion.

Kendra, your instincts are good if your gut reaction is to not immediately trust a source the tenant suggests. I couldn't tell you how many doctored credit reports I've seen that came from the tenant directly. Even pay stubs and rental ledgers! So the key is be sure you are interacting with the source of the data directly. You should be able to see the data from your own account. If you're using BP or RentPrep for the SmartMove reports, all the data comes directly from Transunion, so you're safe there.

Wesley, since you prefer "no-tenant-involvement" reports, you want to steer clear of SmartMove and Experian's Connect product. Screening companies like tenantbackgroundssearch and RentPrep can manually process background checks. We manually pre-search the SSN to be sure it's correct, and if it's wrong, we fix it and run the background check with the correct SSN we found. I'm not sure who else does this, but it would have to be a screening company.