All Forum Posts by: Alex Hamilton

@Steven Anderson I'm glad you asked this question here on BP and hope others can benefit from it too. A lot of landlords don't consider application/screening procedures until after they've made a compliance violation.

There's certainly nothing wrong with offering rent concessions for a longer term lease. Perhaps you can make the concession VERY attractive in comparison to your monthly/yearly lease option. I suggest disclosing your terms before the application process.

Also, don't hesitate to accept multiple applications at once. You don't want to limit your options. Just be careful with your procedures once you order the tenant screening report. You can always refund the screening fee if another applicant qualifies first, but you can't "un-order" their credit report.

Good luck with this rental!

Hello @Steven Anderson. I would avoid choosing your tenants this way. You may be exposing yourself to an unnecessary risk of litigation depending on landlord/tenant law in your state.

I understand the logic in getting as many applicants, then screening them all and choosing the best from among the bunch. However, this practice is not fair to the prospects that you end up turning down. It's best to only screen one applicant at a time, and accept the first one that meets your screening criteria.

Consider how your prospects will feel when they are charged an application fee, then denied tenancy even though they meet your criteria. Also if you're getting a credit report, the inquiry will adversely affect their credit score, since a tenant screening report is a hard hit to credit. You'll end up with a lot of disgruntled applicants by continuing to screen this way. 

Since it sounds like the damage is done at this point, I suggest accepting the first person that applied and met your criteria. Next time, address your leasing terms before screening, so your applicants can decide whether or not they want to apply. Feel free to contact me directly for more support with this matter.

@Jen Faulkner

I didn't get the impression that you would deny her tenancy based on marital status. I'm saying that you shouldn't accept or deny her based on it. In the same way, you shouldn't base your decision on an unverified criminal record that is more than 7 years old.

Professional Tenants use their children to gain sympathy approvals from unsuspecting landlords. I know this sounds terrible, but it actually happens. You're right in your assessment, I'm just pointing out potential problems that can arise from not establishing/following your screening criteria.

The source of felony and misdemeanor criminal information is a county courthouse. The first thing I do is check local/national databases for potential records. Next, I check their Credit Report and Person Search to establish the applicant's address history. Once I have an address history and potential records from the databases, I check with all the county courts directly to find and verify records.

Database searches are relatively inexpensive, but not all counties report to them and the information contained must be verified with a County Search. County Searches are public record, so you can go to the court and obtain them yourself. You could outsource the search to a CRA that will do it for a minimal fee. Some courts also charge an access fee that will likely be passed on to you. Feel free to contact me directly with any questions!

Be careful, you could get sued if you deny her due to the criminal report. How did you find out about the criminal history? Consumer Reporting Agencies are not allowed to report this record since there was no conviction and is more than 7 years old. Was the record verified at the county court or did it come from a database? Make sure you are obtaining/using criminal reports properly.

Are there any other Red-Flags with this applicant? How does her credit/eviction history look? Have you verified income with her employer and contacted her current/previous landlords? Establish a screening criteria and apply it equally to all applicants. The fact that she is a single mother should have no bearing on your decision to rent.

Is the applicant making attempts to payoff the collection account? Have they established any positive credit since the judgment? 

Before checking anyone's credit, you should establish a screening criteria. You may want to get some professional counsel to make sure your screening procedures are compliant with FCRA and Fair Housing regulations. The Consumer Reporting Agency that provided your credit report is a good starting point.

The first thing you should do is look at supporting documents to confirm their identity. You can look at their Social Security card, Drivers License and paycheck stubs to make sure all information is consistent with the application.

Then, process the credit check first. Don't waste your time making verification calls if they don't meet your credit criteria. Besides, how do you know you're actually calling the right person without seeing the address history on the credit report? You should use the address history to verify addresses listed on the application, then do a title search on those properties to identify the owner before calling. 

Don't forget to send an Adverse Action Notice to anyone you deny or conditionally approve. Then, move on to the next applicant. Feel free to contact me directly with additional questions about tenant screening. Good luck!

I noticed on another post that there are a lot of misunderstandings regarding the traditional FICO scoring model and it's use for tenant screening. Has anyone tried using the VantageScore option instead? Is VantageScore a more effective decision making tool for tenant screening?

Does SmartMove offer Customer Service for questions like this? 

Check with your local rental housing association (CAA) for a rental agreement that is applicable to your needs. You can also consult with a local landlord-tenant attorney and they will draft an agreement that meets California state requirements. The key is to look for local help since each state/county has different landlord-tenant laws.

I appreciate the perspective from @Jeremiah Stephen since I also work for a Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA). I hope his comment isn't removed for self promotion and BiggerPockets will at least consider allowing competitors of MySmartmove to comment about their services in the forums when a question like this is asked.

There are additional benefits to working with a CRA instead of directly with a credit bureau. Additional products and services, not available through a credit bureau, can be obtained by a CRA. You can avoid setting up multiple accounts and the cost of services is usually less, since a CRA gets volume discounts from data providers. Feel free to contact me directly to discuss your screening/leasing options in greater detail. Good luck!