All Forum Posts by: Ariel O.

@Jerome Kaidor 

There is an adage that applies here:

Cheap, Fast, Good, Pick 2.

The vast majority of landlords/property managers want a criminal check, but it's not their primary concern (as opposed to credit, evictions etc). Most screening companies won't give you that level of county/state in depth search that will usually turn up most felonies, mainly because of cost , lack of demand, and marketplace knowledge.

Here's the issue: The multi state searches, and Intelius searches too (which are not FCRA compliant and can get you in real trouble,btw), are database searches. You can only have data in there that is able to be purchased or assembled from the state and local jurisdictions. So there's a ton that's missed.

The best way to do it is to check each county they lived in that comes back from the address trace. If you're incredibly paranoid you can do the counties adjacent, as well as counties worked in. If you're lucky they lived in one of the states that has a state level repository that is as reliable as a county level search. 

Some states offer online searches, but even then it's not perfect. For example CT only offers data going back 7 years, so you have to know that and find someone who has older data. 

I don't know that it would cost you $160 like @Kenneth LaVoie posted so many years ago, but it would be in the $50 and up  range + court fees if there was no real volume. What you want basically is a criminal search equivalent to the ones done for managerial or mid level employment background checks and they're just not cheap. Remember you're putting boots on the ground to get a lot of the data.

Screening is an art and a science, good luck.

@Jim Johnson 

Thanks. There's actually oil wells across from the park. If I could get significant seller carry on this particular park I might be tempted anyway, but the seller has one of those ridiculous numbers in his head so who knows  what will happen on this deal. Not going to loose too much sleep on it. (8 Cap on a rent roll that is dubious at best. Need to have a Come to J moment with the guy).

My concerns are not in places like Houston, or Dallas.

I am talking about parks in oil country, where the bigger employers are Oil Services. Remember we're talking about tenants who live or die by their paycheck.

I'd prefer responses from people who own parks, please.

@Eric Tait Yes, mobile home parks.

Hey all

Evaluating a few parks in TX right now, many of them dependent on areas that are particularly dependent on Oil. That being said they are mostly in populated areas around cities. 

Does anyone have thoughts about buying parks in Texas as oil keeps dropping? Appreciate thoughts from the group. Some of the specific parks I've seen in these areas have a lot of upside so I'm debating pulling the trigger mainly because of the economic issues.

 I don't understand this. They need to give you their rental history, right? They need to provide you with the name of the Landlord at these rentals. If they don't, then don't accept them.. The larger issue is a lot of people will fake the phone numbers.

I am completely going off thread, but did you know that there are Mobile Home Parks in NY? They're all upstate. As someone from the Greater NYC Area, this is unfathomable to me.

@Stephen White Your willingness to forgive easily gives away your upstate background :P

@Thomas Hopkins if you're willing to apologize then welcome aboard :-) We all make mistakes. Just be careful of the MVP/Lean Startup methodology when interacting with the FCRA. Good luck on your venture!

@Thomas Hopkins 

Spokeo has EVERYTHING to do with the FCRA, and the FCRA covers a lot more then credit. It covers investigative reports, public records, and more. Using a service like Spokeo to create a tenant screening background check will get you sued faster then you can say FTC.

I appreciate your effort to join and eventually promote your product but please get your facts straight. 

@Thomas Hopkins - Welcome to BP, and I appreciate you trying to enter the BP Community to promote your service. I don't think it's cool to come in and say things that are not blatantly not true about a competitor. While I own a competing business to them (

@Stephen White  - fellow NAPBS member here :-)), I know that they do the full verification process and have a really good verification process in place for all of their data. 

So take a deep breath.