All Forum Posts by: Anne Johnson

I just screened a prospective tenant with Smartmove. Without sharing too much information, the report came back with "not enough information." The criminal report showed an incident from 25 years ago. Then I checked a popular social media source, and (conclusively) figured out that the individual was incarcerated for over a decade and recently released!! Apparently Smartmove can't get into federal cases, so the report missed a rather major detail. I called Smartmove and they said that the (federal) court doesn't give them any information. 

I am alarmed as my trust in Smartmove has been completely shattered, and now I wonder about the backgrounds of my other tenants who I screened with their service. I will now be changing to another screening provider. Has anyone else found similar issues with Smartmove or any other screening provider missing a very significant piece of background information?

Incidentally, the other tenants have mostly been fine (as far as I still know), and the person with the recent release seems to be viable as a tenant, so the decisions may not change, but missing this critical piece of information is an egregious omission.

Hi! I have an assistant for my rentals who is barely scraping by. She has struggled financially for a long time, and has been the tenant who can't pay. Turns out that she excels at interpreting tenant situations and translating what people are really saying and doing, and why, because she has lived it. Her advice has been indispensable for me; she's always right about people, and can tell when a tenant is just not going to make ends meet, for example.
I'm encouraging her to start a blog and/or consulting service - maybe a hotline - for landlords who want help understanding what is really going on with the tenant. Before she puts a lot of work into it, I'd like to see if this service sounds useful to you. How much would a 30-minute consult be worth to help interpret tenant situations? Any suggestions would be great. She has a gift and I really hope she can capitalize on it.

Greetings from Tucson, Arizona. I started investing in single-family homes in late 2011, and now have about a dozen rentals. I have also done a few flips and am currently re-evaluting strategies, as the competition for SFRs has gotten crazy here. I am also in a partnership that owns/operates a premium strength training facility, and I have two little kids and a part-time gig in the USAF Reserve. Fun times!