All Forum Posts by: Stephen White

Can vouch for Andrew Schultz at Own Buffalo - he's managed my properties for 3-4 years now and in that short period of time I've run into just about every issue you can imagine; problems with toilet, trees falling in storm, trees falling a separate time and crushing a newly stained fence, roof leak, basement flooded, and a list of needy tenant issues - bottom line is Andrew Schultz probably saved my marriage. I own a business that already demands most of my time and my wife hated the idea of property investing, assuming it would consume even more of my time. Had I self-managed the past 3-4 years, she would have been right.

I can't personally vouch for @Matthew Irish-Jones but he's a familiar face and I've known others to have good experiences. In my line of work, we hear the horror stories and remember the names of who to stay away from - Matt is definitely not on the naughty PM list.

Just following this thread and thought it was worth mentioning that most sites do gather the data from the same 2 sources - Experian Connect and TransUnion SmartMove. This is because these are tech companies and not screening companies, which is why they all seem to be eventually sold off since that's their long-term game plan.

I've been in the screening industry since 2007 and I've seen the trend from the beginning to where it is now. The biggest differentiator between a tech company and a screening company is going to be the support of the products more than anything. A customer service rep won't be able to walk you through or interpret a credit report/criminal records like a Certified Screener who's trained and experienced in just that. A screening company should also be able to offer a few products outside of the same 2 you see everywhere else.

And I think @Max T. has the right strategy, based on my experience. By far the most common issue we see landlords have to deal with is application fee disputes, so we always recommend using a process that pre-screens/pre-qualifies before taking the applicant's money. And in the worst case scenario, offer to refund the fee if the applicant is not accepted and they start to push back. The headache they'll cause over the next couple of weeks is not worth the principle of a no-refund policy - IMO. 

@Hyung ku Kim what you are looking for is an Adverse Action letter and RentPrep can provide this to you since you ran the report with RentPrep. Our template will contain the proper information, including Transunion's contact info should they want to request a copy of their credit report. You need not provide the applicant with a copy of their report, in fact we recommend against this because your version of the report will be missing the necessary disclosures required for the consumer copy.

I will have the Screening Department reach out to you directly. 

@Michael Tucker this is a good question - I've seen a lot of success with local reentry services that often operate as a non-profit. In my local area there is an organization called Peaceprints of WNY and I'm very impressed with their work. The recidivism rate is extremely low when someone is receiving good guidance. 

So to answer your question, the criteria I'd consider for reentering citizens is - 

1. the nature of the past offense

2. time since the offense and subsequent offenses (hopefully none) 

3. are they working with an advocacy group like Peaceprints that helps them through their transformation 

4. a solid source of income (be aware that some states consider housing assistance as a source of income)

I commend you on being open to the idea of considering former offenders. I personally know several landlords who have found success in this niche, from a business point of view. 

Now, I hope I'm not out of line, but I'll offer my personal point of view for the sake of healthy debate with @James Wise. I'll start by saying I completely understand your position James and you're not wrong necessarily. I wouldn't recommend that every landlord go out and rent to former felons, but it's not based on the risks or what you might think. I'd say that it depends more on the individual landlord and their objective. 

If you're a landlord or an investor who is only looking at growing your number of doors and scaling your business with the least amount of friction possible, you might not have the stomach to tolerate the idea of increased risk or effort. However, if you want to use your time/energy as an opportunity to change someone's life or make a considerable impact in your community by taking on what others might turn away, there is plenty of reward beyond business benefits. 

I realize this is not going to be a popular perspective in a forum full of people trying to make their pockets bigger (pun intended) but I'd consider how many successful people you know who are miserable. I was certainly one of these people and have a sizable therapy bill to prove it. The lesson I learned was that I needed a bigger purpose beyond just making more money. My bigger purpose is not specifically renting to former felons, but this is only because I have a purpose that's more personal to me. And when it comes to my bigger purpose, I'll put in the extra effort where others may not because I can, and I want to. Selfishly, what I get in return on something I feel aligned with far outweighs anything I can measure in cashflow or margin. 

Again, I realize not everybody has this perspective or hears the call of a bigger purpose, and I begrudgingly accept the title of Hippy or Tree-hugger if you see fit. But everyone's path leads them in different directions and I appreciate the Michael Tuckers of the world who might be trying to make a difference beyond himself and willing to give the effort needed to offset that additional risk. After all, if not him then who? Who steps up to give someone a second chance that might genuinely deserve it? Who takes the extra steps to ensure a successful reentry that contributes to the community instead of disrupting it? Who is willing to look beyond the business benefits and accept a job that includes more than collecting as much rent as possible?

Thanks for the mention Alison! 

Aaron, everything Alison says is true - the only thing I'll add is that we offer both options for screening - one with no tenant involvement, and another that requires an email response from the tenant. It really comes down to whether you'll get a full credit report or not. In the screening industry, unless you're a property management company that has set up the site inspection required for pulling full credit reports, you'll need to use a product that involves the tenant to get a full credit report. There's no way around this, regardless of what screening company you're using. 

So if you DO want credit information, but DON'T want the tenant to have to respond to an email, a "Decision Model" report is going to be your only option. On RentPrep this is product specifically is called the Credit Check. It allows you to choose an acceptable range you want your applicant's credit to fall into (for example a credit score not less than 650) and the report will give you a "Approve/Decline" response based on the applicant's credit - without providing you with the full credit report. Keep in mind the applicant/tenant does not need to respond to an email for this product, but you (the landlord) will still need to have them fill out a rental application and have them sign it to give their consent to perform the credit and background searches.

Hey @Christopher Malone thanks for the mention! 

Just so you know RentPrep does allow landlords to choose to have applicants to pay for their SmartMove reports. We've been investing heavily in our unique partnership with Transunion and in January 2019 landlords will be able to order SmartMove reports with RentPrep's popular verification products as well. So keep an eye out for that and let me know if you're interested in helping us test the new release, we're looking for experienced landlords that know the SmartMove product well and you'd be perfect. DM me if interested and we'll connect as we get closer to launching. 

Happy landlording!

Sorry I'm late to the party. For the record, the guys at TenantTurner are great. My guess is that, like all support vendors that work with PM's, this time of year is crazy for them. Everyone is trying to lock down new vendors or processes for the new year and it all happens at once. Today is only Dec. 7th and my onboarding team this morning looked like keystone cops running around the office coordinating with different departments, making changes to existing clients for EOY, setting up new clients for launches on Jan 1st, migrating platforms, etc, etc. It's a mad house here and I'm sure TenantTurner is feeling it too. 

Quick answer - they do not serve the small landlord market any longer.

They started out initially serving landlords, and in fact won a top startup contest for their ideas. But like any business, ideas evolve and you pivot, and before you know it you realize your product is much better suited for one particular audience over another.

@Greg Schuricht thanks for listening to the RentPrep podcast - another good example of a pivot. Our old episodes are night and day different from new episodes. 

As for a service that does what you're looking for - for landlords - I'm not sure it exists. There's only 3 services like TenantTurner that I'm aware of, and all of them cater to PMs, not landlords. 

Check out TenantCloud if you're looking for an end-to-end platform for landlords. They have a lot of features and give you options to choose vendors (unlike Cozy) and they're working on big things in the near future.

Of course we'd love the screening order @Pat L. but I'm just as happy to know you sold because it was the right move for you as an investor. I started RentPrep in 2007 not knowing the housing crisis was around the corner, so I've seen my fair share of people who didn't have the option to sell . Thankfully those days are past us and now when I hear about a client selling a property I know we'll do business again sooner than later. 

Not sure where in Upstate NY you are, but you're welcome to stop into the RentPrep office in West Seneca (just outside of Buffalo) and visit anytime.

Thanks for the mention @Pat L. we do operate in all 50 states.

We perform about 200-300 verification call per day. I can tell you a few things based on our experience

1. Verifications are NOT bullet proof but should never be skipped. 

2. It's a fairly common misconception that landlords will give a good reference for the sake of getting the bad tenant out. If anything, a landlord will decline to comment if they're having major issues. But more often than not, they want to be sure another landlord does not have to suffer like they did. Yes, there is some sense of comradery among landlords.

3. You can sniff out a friend/buddy posing as a landlord by asking some loaded questions you already have the answers to. Like what is the full rental property address. You'd be shocked how many people know what street their friends live on but don't know the house number or zip code.