Is Apartments.com and Zillow the best for screening apps

[Cory St. Esprit]

I have a 2BR, 1 Bath apartment listed for rent. I have it listed on Zillow, Apartments, Facebook, and Craigslist. I know Apartments.com and Zillow does tenant screening, but for those on Facebook and Craigslist, what's the best route to get the application filled out and to have the background check done?

Should I route them through Apartments.com? By my understanding, they pay a fee to apartments for the background check and application, right? Would love to hear your tenant screening processes and how that works.

[Alecia Loveless]

@Cory St. Esprit I use MySmartMove for background checks. There’s a couple different levels I believe, I use the $43 one and believe it’s the most comprehensive one.

Personally I have my applicants fill out an application and pre-screen them before narrowing down to a short list before only running an actual background check on the first and possibly the second runner up in line for the unit.

I figure I can always go back and run more background checks on people further down the line in the process if something doesn’t work out with the first applicant or two. And that there’s no reason to just simply charge 10-15 people for a background check simply because they applied especially with our current level of inflation and money being tight for everyone.