You can also drive the area, if you are not local utilize google maps to virtually drive the area pay attention to the lower right side of the screen as it will tell you when the photo was taken.Another great asset is the mailman, talk to him or her they know which houses on their route is vacant. 

The tenants have only lived there since January and there were a ton of red flags and screening wasn’t done right.

If valuations come out in May and show no increase; I will be able to hold flat on rents to my tenants!

I’m looking to buy a 2-3 flat in Chicago and was wondering if anyone has had any experience buying a multi unit, living in one bedroom and renting out the other bedrooms in the units individually and not as a whole. 

The kind that looks like fake bricks and is similar to roof shingles has a flat surface and pretty easy to cover over.

Or a flat fee?

Obviously, you can't let them skip that step - it's not uncommon for people who would fail the screening, to try and avoid it by claiming they couldn't get the website to work or some such.

@Kyle J. thanks for the screen-shot, that helps even more.

The norm is NOA, T1, bank statements and screen print outs of accounts.  

I’ll be renting out my first apartment soon and I’m interested in learning the best strategies of screening the applicants.