All Forum Posts by: Stephen White

Wendy, I'm so glad to hear you like the podcast! If you ever have any questions or suggestions for topics you'd like us to cover feel free to reach out to me directly, I'm happy to help however I can. 

Thanks for sharing the article @Eddie T. 

We actually use TransUnion and CoreLogic as some of our data providers so we could actually provide these searches. I put a call in to our Reps to see what's entailed. I actually like the idea that they're getting the data from the courts and not from participating landlords. Programs that blacklist tenants based on landlord's sharing information always seems like a great idea but the data is just not there until you have huge buy-in from many landlords. But in this case, the records are still coming from the courts so it's more reliable. Thanks again for bringing this to my attention, we'll take a look and see if something worth adding to our reports.

@Eddie T.  that's an interesting question. To be honest I've never seen such a case, but in theory it would be possible. Since we search judgment and lien records, we would see the plaintiff and defendant switched around. The problem would be if they sued an individual landlord versus an actual property management company or apartment community. The record would simply say "Eddie T." instead of a more obvious "Garden Village Apartments". So there would be some additional digging to find out what the suit was for. 

Since I noticed you're in Jamaica, NY Eddie, I would suggest also checking with the NYC Fair Housing office. I've never looked through their records but I have to imagine that they're available in person if nowhere else. 

@Account Closed  we use 3 independent data providers for our criminal records. As I'm sure you're eluding to, databases are known for missing information and inconsistencies. Pulling records at the county level (standard for employment screening, but not tenant) is the only way to ensure 100% accuracy. Unfortunately it's not a standard in the tenant screening industry because each county charges their own access fees. And since those fees vary from state to state and county to county, getting a fixed fee on that screening package would be impossible. And in counties like Erie County, NY where I live, the fee is $65 per applicant. I don't know a landlord anywhere that would pay that for every potential tenant they screened, including myself. 

So to keep the landlord's cost down, while still providing better data, we search each database individually by hand - no instant results or blind entries. This means even if the applicant purposely provided the wrong SSN or name (which we see all the time), we can still find the correct data and run the report. The information is then cross-referenced for accuracy and FCRA compliance, which sometimes includes a call to the county courts for verification.

The direct answer to your question is technically both - we search by database, and by hand. County record searches are only as good as the database providing the information as to what county they lived in previously. If the applicant lives in Mississippi, but had a criminal record in Texas, you'd have no way of knowing to search that jurisdiction without using a database for that information. Let me know if this helps answer your question.

@Deborah Smith  I'm glad to hear that our Screeners have been helpful.

I appreciate your trust and we're here for you when you need us again :)

@Account Closed I was going through and answering in order my friend. Today being the day before the 4th of July we're extremely busy so I'm checking in on this board every chance I can and trying to provide quality responses to everyone's questions and comments. Hopefully you noticed that.   

Now to answer your question - our turn-around time is typically 1-2 hours. If you order the Platinum Package we make verification phone calls, so the turn-around time can depend greatly on how fast landlords and employers pick up the phone. Since we are a national company, we serve all areas of the US, even Petal, Mississippi. 

Sorry for the delay, I'm trying to help as many landlords as I can today!

Thanks @Travis Murray , and you're right we do require the landlord to authenticate their identity the first time they order the Credit Check report. This is the alternative to have the tenant heavily involved in the screening process that comes with services like smart move. This credentialing step allows us to perform the search WITHOUT requiring the tenant/applicant to receive and respond to an email that makes them jump through additional hoops, in addition to completing your rental application. Some landlords (myself included) feel that this additional step leaves the applicant in complete control of the screening process. In other words, if they don't take the time to jump through the hoops, you won't receive the report. Other landlords have the mentality that if the tenant is not willing to jump through the additional hoops, then they're not motivated enough to pass the screening process, which I can also understand. 

This additional step for landlords is not only a one-time process, it's only required for the credit portion of the report. Keep in mind every time a credit report is pulled from a bureau an inquiry is generated. The credentialing is authenticating the inquiry, proving that you have permissible purpose to view credit information. For the actual background check portion of the reports (SSN verification, Address History, Eviction History, Criminal, Judgments, Liens, Bankruptcy) no additional steps are required because the data does not come from the credit bureaus. 

This is by far the most controversial and confusing regulation in the screening industry. Especially since it recently changed in 2009, so many landlords are accustomed to the old days of requesting a credit report and getting it without the additional steps. We all play by the same rules in the industry, so no matter the choice in companies you use for screening you'll have to decide if they fit into your screening procedures.

@Rhonda E.  we certainly do run into situations where people falsify the information and give their friends phone numbers. There are several ways to combat this issue;

- ask loaded questions. If the applicant completed the rental application they should have provided information such as their monthly rent amount, the address of the rental unit, and their move-in/move-out dates. These are all things that a landlord/property manager would know when asked "how much are they paying for monthly rent", but a friend who is only prepared to say "they're a great tenant" typically doesn't know the detailed information. This makes the no-blank-spaces-policy on the rental application all that more important. 

- another way to ensure you're talking to the right person is to verify the number provided. Any landlord can this through a google search. If they provide a number that supposedly goes to Village Green Apartments, but the number shows up in google as a private cell phone, there's an obvious red flag. We have the luxury of using our databases to see the exact person the phone number is registered to, so verifying even private landlords can be done. 

- use their address history on a screening report to fill in the gaps. If they claim to have lived at only 2 residences over the past 3 years, ask them to explain why 4 addresses are showing up within that time period.

Finally, to answer your question directly about having an instance where we did not catch someone falsifying information - yes, this has happened. It's not often, due to the fact that we have a lot of tools and procedures in place to avoid these situations, but I have seen some sophisticated bad tenants. We had a case several months ago where a woman went as far as creating a website to look like the property management company that was renting to her. She listed her boyfriends phone number as the contact number and when we typed it into to google to find the business everything looked legit. When we called the boyfriend he was well prepared to answer even detailed questions. Thankfully she had a handful of judgments and evictions so the landlord made the right decision in the end and didn't rent to her. 

As I said, these are rare cases and unfortunately there will always be people who will go way out of their way to beat the system. But as landlords all we can do is have solid screening procedures in place to catch these and perform our due diligence. Tenant Screening is a lot like hand sanitizer that kills 99.9% of germs - there will always be that small percentage that slides under the radar.

@Michael Sherwood  and @Andrew Schultz, you guys are both class acts! Thank you for the recommendations, it means a lot coming from two colleagues I respect very much. I can't wait to get back o the BP meet-ups!

@Deborah Smith we'll leave up to 3 messages to get a hold of a landlord or employer. After that many messages, there's not much more you can say to get someone to call back. Not only that, but to keep a reasonable turn-around time, we have to set some parameters. If we leave 3 unanswered messages, what works best at that point is to let the applicant know - 

"hey your background check is complete except we haven't heard back from your employer/landlord yet, can you tell them to return the screening company's calls so we can give you our final decision?"

If they're good tenants, the landlord or property manager will no trouble returning a message. Employers too.

I looked specifically on your reports Deborah, and I see that we were able to verify all of the information within 2 phone calls. Except for an employment verification, whereas the supervisor was out of town for a week and nobody else could verify the information. The nice thing is that you have all the date and time stamps to see each phone call and conversation. 

As far as the data goes, I see we were able to find several evictions so I can see how you would find that extremely valuable. I appreciate the vote of confidence. Just let me know the next time you're ordering and I'll upgrade your report for free so we can take another shot at impressing you with the verification phone calls :)