Section 8 Screening Process

[Jennie Carolan]

My husband and I just bought our first section 8 property. I excited to learn the process and wanted to reach out to the Bigger Pockets community regarding a few things: 

1. Do you do a pre-screen before you have the applicant fill out and pay for a background check?

2. What do you think of Chex Safe for a background check website? This is the website that gosection8.com recommends. For our other properties, we use myrental.com to run background checks. 

3. Do you ask the tenant for one month's security deposit upfront? I have been reading other forums on this and many say 1-2 months.

4. Any other information to know upfront! 

5. Are there any questions I can't ask (that could be considered discrimination) aside from the obvious?

Thank you!