Tenant Screening Recommendations (real estate, rental, assessors)

[Luvs2Trvl]

So I may have to lease my home again . Last time I used a realtor to secure tenant and screen them (credit, background, etc) but this time I'm going to do it since I have someone that wants to rent it. Any realtors/landlords have a good recommendation for an online company that does a good job of obtaining this info?

[veg-gal]

Originally Posted by Luvs2Trvl

So I may have to lease my home again . Last time I used a realtor to secure tenant and screen them (credit, background, etc) but this time I'm going to do it since I have someone that wants to rent it. Any realtors/landlords have a good recommendation for an online company that does a good job of obtaining this info?

Transunion (one of the 3 major credit bureaus) has a great tenant screening option for $25 and another option for $30, but your potential tenant also has to log onto the site in order to complete the application. That's to protect you and Transunion, vs. the old way of doing it where the landlord keys in all the info the tenant has provided him.

We have a couple rental properties in CA and we only use Transunion. Not that it matters to this discussion, but I don't like them as a credit bureau, however I like their tenant screening services.

https://www.mysmartmove.com/

I hope this info helps, and good luck!

[Luvs2Trvl]

Thanks for the info, so the tenant enters their personal info and then you receive the information via email?

[veg-gal]

Originally Posted by Luvs2Trvl

Thanks for the info, so the tenant enters their personal info and then you receive the information via email?

Yes. You fill out the landlord section, then you give the tenant a code for them to log in and enter their info, and give their consent for their credit to be assessed, etc. Then you receive email notification when they've done that and you're able to access the results.

[Luvs2Trvl]

Good to know!

[DanW127]

I'm personally a fan of MyRental.com. I've been with them for a while now, and in my experience they give you the best results for your dollar.

[Luvs2Trvl]

I'll give an update since I've used two different companies now. After comparing reviews online of several sites I decided to use RentPrep. I paid for the upgraded package which included a real person calling to confirm/ask for verification of employment, references, etc... One thing to note about them is that they can get most of the credit screening, background, eviction, etc... back to you pretty quickly over the weekend. Since I started an inquiry over the weekend and they are on the East coast, the person to person screening portion couldn't be completed until Monday but they did get that done quickly and they were persistent. You can see notes where the screener has called up to 3 times to talk with a landlord, reference or employer and if they spoke with the person or what they found out. You can also call and talk to someone about the screening and they added notes regarding some suspicions I had regarding references. The credit portion does not show you a score however or a full accurate depiction of their credit history. They just give you a pass or fail based off the criteria you input as the type of credit history your willing to accept. What I liked about this company is that they do some of the leg work for you and you do not have to rely or wait on an applicant to put in any information to get the report back.

Because I was feeling a little suspicious about the accuracy of the prospective tenant's application, I decided to run a second report through the TransUnion mysmartmove as Veg-gal suggested above. What I liked about this one was that it was much faster, almost instant results and it gives a much clearer picture of their credit history including their score. Also checks background, evictions, showed delinquent accounts, collection accounts, addresses etc... It does not verify employment or check landlord references etc... This report however cleared up any confusion I had about the applicants since it gave such a clearer view of their payment history. The only drawback, which was mentioned in reviews, was that you do have to wait for the applicant to accept the email, logon and give whatever info or permission they want to run the report. Our applicant got this done fast but I could see it being frustrating if someone didn't get to this quickly. You would have to verify employment and call landlords or references yourself with this one.

The ironic thing was that RentPrep recommended I accept one applicant but decline the co-applicant and Transunion did the exact opposite recommendation. Personally I think I'll spend a little extra money out of my own pocket to run both reports to make sure I get the best picture I can on a tenant. In addition to that, I found it absolutely invaluable to check the county assessors website on the tenants past two addresses to obtain the property owners mailing address and name. I then searched online and found phone numbers, called their previous and current landlords and found out the applicant was not a good tenant from both landlords and was currently being evicted! If anyone wants to hire me for my services, let me know, I'm a better investigator than I even thought I could be! Can't be too cautious these days, especially after the deluge of people looking at my home that either can't afford it or want to use it as a grow house for marijuana!

[pat09]

Just came across this post. I know that many property application platforms such as Rentberry and Zillow, do tenant screening if you post your vacancy with them. Besides, they can make renting out a vacancy easier, especially if you don't use service of real estate agent. These portals cove all aspects of rental application process.