rental application question (Knoxville: eviction, credit check, employment)

[quesera]

In the Knoxville area, what is the typical timeline from submitting a rental/credit application, to when the applicant is informed whether or not they've been approved? Does it vary from property management agency to agency or is it pretty standard across the board?

Thank you!

[creeksitter]

Check back if you haven't heard anything in 2 business days. Ask when you can expect to hear back from them.

[Ashrael]

I used to work in the background check business. Typically the request is sent to the researchers the same day you apply. They can usually get to it within the next day and fax the results back. The management company then sits down with that data and makes a decision. So typically you can reasonably expect an answer in 2-3 business days.

However, if you've lived out of state in the last five years and they're doing criminal background checks, it bight take as long as a month to get an answer, depending on how many inquiries they have to send to other agencies and/or courts.

Other things that can slow them down:
. Employment history checks
. If you have a common name and they're doing criminal checks (court records are stored by name and address, not ssn)
. If you do something flakey, like use a relative's ssn on your application

For the most part the credit check is to establish that you are who you claim to be, and that you're not in the habit of blowing off creditors. A separate eviction check is often done, and some times the management company will request criminal and even civil court searches (civil searches reveal squatter's rights claims and such). Anything beyond the basic local criminal check and credit run can slow your application down.

[quesera]

Thank you, Ashrael.