All Forum Posts by: Stephen White

@WAYNE G. I'm glad someone else saw that rant on rentprep lol. I spent too long responding thoughtfully only to have him nay-say everything I said. He clearly has something against real estate agents, or the real estate industry in general.

Hey, @Patrick Donovan I agree with both responses. And Aly is absolutely correct that a common name can create a lot of confusion since records are now housed by name and not SSN in Illinois (and most other states now). 

You need a background check that can confirm the records. One issue that you'll run into is that since the charges were only from a month ago, there is a good possibility that there is no disposition yet. In other words, he may not have been convicted of the charges yet. In which case, it really depends on the nature of the arrest and charges that will determine how you'll handle this. 

Let me know if you have any questions once you get your hands on a report, or if you need direction on getting a report, and I'll try to help however I can.

@Ariel O. that cracks me up! Only another New Yorker knows that upstate and downstate are like two different planets somehow existing in the same place and time lol. 

Glad to meet you here my friend!

@Ariel O.  thanks for reaching out. I feel bad because I didn't know Thomas was affiliated with any screening company lol. I'm fine either way, and actually I'm friends with a lot of competitors in the industry. Especially going to NAPBS conferences, it's hard to not get along with people who speak your language. 

@Thomas Hopkins  no hard feelings here. Maybe I'll see you at an industry event one of these days. I'll buy the first round :)

@Rob Gribben feel free to reach out anytime if you have any questions about screening tenants. I'm in the industry but I won't sales pitch you to use my company. In fact, I'll be the first to recommend another service if I can't provide what you're looking for.

Actually Thomas we do call employers and landlords. 

We are one of the few screening companies that actually employs FCRA Certified Screeners to make these verification calls and review every record we find. This makes the reports more accurate and compliant for landlords.

Landlords should be aware that new "Ban the Box" laws are being adopted in many states. Of course the biggest impact will be on the employment side of applications, but most states mention rental/lease applications as well. 

This means that in these states (soon to be every state in my opinion) you can no longer include the "where you ever convicted of a felony" question on the application. The idea is to NOT disqualify a person before seeing the criminal records. 

So the idea of tossing out those applications that have the box checked before you run the background check, while logical, should be used carefully. 

My own opinion, from seeing about 1000 background checks per day, is that felony convictions should be considered case by case, after seeing the records on the background check. If for no other reason than to limit future legal liability - but also because I've seen great tenants with prior criminal records. Putting a time limit of 5 years is a great strategy as well. For @Robert Blake , this would ensure any pending or existing legal action (including civil records) would be available for viewing on a background check. 

Rich, on your report, as with all RentPrep reports, at least 3 attempts are made to verify the rental history and employment over a 24 hour period. Our thought is that after 3 messages, the person is either willfully ignoring the message or not getting them. And of course landlords want fast responses so the 24 hour time limit creates urgency for the verifications. 

I checked your report and see that we did get in touch with the current landlord to complete the verification and left 3 messages for the previous landlord as well as the employer, with no response. In these cases, simply letting the applicant know "the background check is done, except we haven't heard back from your employer" will typically prompt a response. 

Since we give you the data portions of the report first (judgments, evictions, etc.) we mark that portion of the report complete as soon as it is, typically within one hour. But the verifications, as you mention, can take longer as we are at the mercy of those answering the phones. When you wrote this post the verifications had only received one attempt, but the remaining occurred as scheduled the next day. 

Feel free to reach out to me directly the next time you have a need for a background check and I'll give you Platinum report upgrade for free to try us again. Rarely do we disappoint in this area so it's important to me that you can see it again knowing what to expect on the verification attempts.

@Yan Hazan  it is possible to perform a background check without the SSN. Since we do all of our screenings by hand (vs. an instant report) the Screener will be able to search for records based on name and/or address. Obviously credit related items will be non-existent without the SSN, but evictions, criminal records, address history and judgments all have the possibility of showing up. 

Your only alternative in this type of scenario is to perform the background check in the home country of the applicant. This however is not standard practice for tenant screening as it is for employment screening for no reason other than cost. Since each country charges their own unique "access fee" the cost can vary from $50-$500 in countries like India. Because of this, landlords typically only run US based searches. 

I hope this helps, let me know if you have any further questions.

Thanks for the vote of confidence @Account Closed! Always happy to help a landlord.. especially a Bills fan!