However, you are a landlord, your only concern should be if they pay their rent on time, keep your place clean with no damages and are not doing any criminal activity in your property. 

Of course, eviction, criminal history, references. 

I completed my Bachelors in Criminal Justice in about 2.5 years while deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan all while having a new born. 

Note: a Mortgage Credit Report will pick up dirt that those worthless "Online" consumer fico score reports won't show.Depending on how much of a Credit Criminal you have on your hands, in addition to a substantial "refundable deposit ask for 1st month's and last 2 month's rent up front (note: need to open an escrow account to deposit the rent payments and deposit collected)Write lease with an "EPD"  (Early Payment Discount), meaning if they ensure that you receive the monthly payment BEFORE the 1st day of the month, the rent is discounted $50, $100, $300 or whatever, depending on if you are leasing out a $50k home or a $3,000,000 home.And the very first time the rent is 5 days late, hire an evection company to go post an eviction notice to start the process and/or show them you are not playing and they will likely ensure you receive the rest of the rents on time after thatAnd I could go on and on listing things to do, but these are a few good ones  

@Frankie Betancourt Buying a property as owner occupied and then renting out right way is mortgage fraud, a federal offence.

The OP can have the prospective tenant look it up online, and also ask the notary (from a “neutral” business location - not a possible friend of the OP) to explain what notarizing a doc means.If the prospective tenant would not be satisfied by going with a notary after reading 470PC (a felony, or at least a wobbler,) on top of the very acceptance of money for the property under false pretenses being a violation of 470PC (but criminals get away without being positively identified all the time) in itself, I’d, then, say that nothing would satisfy the tenant.I imagine that just mentioning the notary - without having anyone read the legal statute - should be enough.

Bad tenants always take offence, even though they know my system beforehand, and will dig in.

You can’t make this stuff up.We have an applicant who had the following 4 charges expunged from her record:-aggregated assault -burglary-criminal attempt - CRIMINAL HOMICIDE -conspiracy- aggravated assault Sounds like a model citizen, right?

It is borderline criminal.

Is it normal to do a criminal back round check on prospective tenants ?