All Forum Posts by: Ariel O.

MySmartMove or the other ones make a LOT of sense if you have under 5-10 properties. 

Once it turns into a full time business (Property Manager, MultiFamily, Broker), you're better off going through the accreditation process and getting direct access to credit reports.

It's a lot more convenient and makes a lot more sense to do real time screening once you have a signed paper or electronic application. Otherwise you end up chasing after tenants, trying to figure out why emails didn't get accepted and lose people who could have been tenants.

Also - the MySmartMove criminal/evictions data is not all that great IMO, but that's a separate discussion for another time.

@Tyson Luthy

Reference checking is annoying in the context of: how do you know the name and number the tenant gives you is legit. We've got a patent pending method to deal with it but even then it's not fool proof :(

@Account Closed

You'd need to ask your local landlord association or attorney. 

 Not in California, no:[http://law.onecle.com/california/civil/1940.3.html]

@Ryan Pyle

Any luck with apartments.com/rent.com and the other 2nd tier sites?

 @Engelo Rumora

That's a great way. I'm actually putting together a guide about using advertising on FB to get rentals. For $5-10/day you can get in front of exactly the right audience :-)

 Federally I don't think it is. You can't discriminate based on national origin, but the law doesn't say anything about citizenship. [https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/3604].

The criminal section of a background check can be done without the SSN. Many jurisdictions have switched to redacting SSNs from criminal [and civil] records before they are released. It's hard to search just by SSN these days.

@Andrew Syrios

You can't just give a "fraudulent SSN", or you shouldn't be able to.  

You run a reverse SSN check which spits back aliases, names, etc. Any PM should be doing this - although I do know PM who didn't, missed an AKA and the eviction under that AKA, and had thousands of $$$ in eviction costs.. All for a few bucks.

@Kevin Andrews

[This is general, not state specific].

If you are on a month to month lease, just end the lease. That's the beauty of them. Remember, you always want to say the minimum possible to avoid any litigation for any reason [Fair Housing etc]. Just inform the tenant, in a legally acceptable way, that you are not extending the lease after next month. Give proper notice etc but no mention of your family, their noise, anything. 

What are eviction times and costs like in your area? Will you have trouble getting another renter?

@Tyson Luthy

Any reason you don't check evictions?

@Paul A. said, it's lame.

If there was no SSN, then the PM should have asked why. They should have asked to photocopy the passport + visa for their records. It's possible these people were in violation of a visa. It's also possible they just got deported. Hard to say. But I would inquire with the PM and find out what process they used.