HOA background check

[Shawn Wade]

Hi there!

So, I have a rental property that's been rented for the past two years. My current tenant will be moving out. It was a quick decision to rent because it was my primary residence, but then I was moving out of state and I rented it to someone I knew without doing any background check and such. But I want to continue renting it and do it wisely to protect my investment.

I do have an account with Innago and was going to run any prospective tenants through there with their criminal, credit, and eviction check. That said, my property is in an HOA, and they do their own background check, etc. I'm looking at it from a renters' standpoint, and I personally wouldn't want to pay for a criminal, credit, and eviction check from the landlord (Innago charges $35) and then pay for another background check from the HOA ($150). I don't necessarily want to rely solely on the HOA doing it though, because I'd like to see what there is before I offer a lease to a prospective tenant (the HOA requires a signed lease as part of their application process).

Just wondering if anyone else has been in a similar situation and what advice you might give. Or what you did to help lessen the blow to a prospective tenant, since it would be redundant. Or should I just not think about it and let this weed out people who wouldn't want to do them both?

Thanks for any help!