"Sorry, no matter what your sob story is, I deny for evictions, bad credit, not enough income, criminal background, no relatives for references, good landlord references, stable rental and employment history, etc.Once you get your criteria set in stone, and make it as tough as you can get away with, then pick your own tenants - you'll find managing becomes so much easier.  

Because you absolutely can screen them well.For instance, just to get on the waiting list for a place I'd like to move into, I had to pay an application fee and allow them to do a credit and criminal background check - just to get on the waiting list.  

Then, maybe you can get them out for criminal behavior?

., is he a tenant with rights you need to evict or a criminal trespasser that can be removed by police?)

It's fairly common to require a co-signer for college students though since their income isn't going to meet your criteria and you then run their parents credit and use that as your basis for qualification.For prior evictions and criminal, those are still extremely important to run on the students.It's also quite common for there to be multiple students sharing a house, so handling split-responsibility for the payments is also another very common thing to do in college housing.

I emailed him a list of all of the terms and he said the only thing this company won't do is the criminal background check.

I explain the process for moving forward - credit/criminal/income verification etc...within about a half hour, they are calling asking about where to drop off applications.  

You only need to prove your case to 51%, not "beyond all reasonable doubt" like a criminal case.

@Robert Ablorh If the collections were medical and closed, and their current credit, criminal, and eviction histories as well as their rental references are good they sound like a decent pick to me.  

On background/credit search, they both have good credit history but they both also have criminal background.