Do you guys use BP Smart Move for tenant screening?

[Ryan L.]

Hey guys,

Do you use biggerpockets.smartmove.com for your tenant screening? If so, how do you like it compared to others? If not, why not and who do you use? I used it for my prop and it seemed to work really well. What's your thoughts?

[Peter M.]

Joshua Dorkin
I recently had a vacancy and decided to give Smartmove a try. Overall I was very displeased with the service. My complaints are the following:

1: Does not let you run your own credit according to terms of service. In order to make sure the system worked, I wanted to test run it on myself so I set up a landlord and renter account. I did get my credit report and it had a very user friendly look especially for new landlords that don't have as much experience looking at them. However, today when I tried to log on (so about 1 week has passed) it would only let me into the rental account. I got a call back from the customer service people who told me that I violated the terms of service by running my own credit and that I was now permanently locked out of the landlord account. The only way to remedy this would be to sign up using a new email and not do it in the future. Since I read every service agreement I click on when I sign up for an update or new service *NOT*, obviously I did not know this was a condition of using Smartmove. Might want to advertise that a little better.

2: Incomplete credit: Since I ran my credit "illegally" I did get a report and it was complete except for one major thing, my loan on the property I own! I was informed this was because I am in Texas and Trans Union is not the most used agency here. I realize that any individual service I use would have this problem but it is concerning since being in Texas, I would want the Texas transactions to be reported. I emailed them to see if their service offered any remedy to this and promptly got an email back that said "No we don't off that service."

3: Nobody completed it. This is not the fault of Smartmove but the whole idea puts the power in the hands of the applicants. I didn't charge an application fee but instead had the applicant pay for the service. They received a copy of their report which I thought was a good selling point as well as it being a soft inquiry but of the 15 emails I sent to check credit I got 3 back. And only after calling repeatedly to urge them to do it. And even if I collected the money upfront, they would still have to go online to authorize the transaction when in reality, by signing my application, they have already given me permission. So in that scenario yes, I would get to keep their money but, I don't think that is honest or the right way to do business. Maybe if this was a single family home and people were more motivated I would get a better response but if they took the time to fill out the application and return it, you'd think they would have the time to go online. I feel like I am giving up some of the control in the application process and any landlord does not like giving up control.

4. The criminal report was suspect because I know for a fact, one application had a minor history but the report came back clean. Also very disturbing. Granted it would not have been disqualifying in any way (was not violent or a felony) but still it should have come up.

As pros for the site I will say that it is very user friendly and their support team was very prompt but overall I was not impressed. Luckily I chose one of the applicants yesterday and they are moving in at the end of the month. However I will not sign up again for a new account and look for a new way to get credit reports next time I have a vacancy.

Josh, I realize BP endorses this site and I hope this post is seen as constructive criticism and not unfounded bashing. Please contact me if you would like to discuss it more. Thanks

Peter Moser