Poor screening often results in lost rents, legal & court costs and costly damages.Screening of applicants includes the following:Full credit/eviction/criminal checks are done, instead of score-driven reportsVerification of rental history includes validation of actual property owner to avoid fraudVerification of stability of income & employment via YTD paystubs & W-2(s) (analyzed to confirm not fakes)Income is calculated 3 ways to spot stability anomalies: pay period, YTD average and YTD + W-2 average.Debt-to-income analysis (more accurate than traditional 3x rent requirement)Bank statement to see if NSF issues, if deposits support income, prove MoveIn Funds, also analyzed for unusual transactions.Pet screeningHolding Fee required from approved applicants to make sure they are serious, before a property is marked pending.

Owners mistakenly ASSUME all PMCs offer the exact SAME SERVICES and PERFORM those services EXACTLY THE SAME WAY, so price is the only differentiator.So, the first question they usually ask a PMC is about fees - instead of asking about services and HOW those services are executed.EXAMPLE: PMC states they will handle tenant screening – what does that specifically mean?

Other software has rent collection and tenant screening features but focuses more on income and expense tracking and report generation (so is more useful when it comes to bookkeeping and filing taxes).

You can screen a sec 8 tenant just like you would any reg paying tenant. 

A lot of that comes down to screening, but also having a quality unit.

For example, let's say I do find a house and buy, then how to screen a tenant and all that is all a mystery.

Tenant screening is always important, and learning the ropes with CHA is necessary.  

The downsides are that you are purchasing a lease contract fully subject to the previous landlord . . . their systems, their tenant screening, their everything. 

It might be easier to get something in a slightly nicer neighborhood where because its that the tenant screening will be very easy and there is more fun stuff around.

I keep a land line to screen out annoyance calls and fax callers (amazingly, I still get an occasional fax call).