To Screen or Not To Screen? The Answer is Easy, Screen!

When you are renting properties it might seem easiest to allow the first person who applies rent the house or apartment. However, it is important to use tenant screening software such as Rentec Direct's easy to use tenant screening, before you allow them to rent your properties. A tenant's history is going to tell you a lot about who they are and how they'll behave. If they've made messes out of properties, leave before their lease is up, or get the police called on them, you can be sure that they'll do the same thing at your rental property. When a person or family has done things in the past, they will most likely repeat them.

Credit Report

It is vitally important to make sure that your tenants are going to be able to pay there rent. Tracking down tenants to collect rent each month is not something that anyone wants to do. Therefore, you want to take a look at the way that your tenants have handled their responsibilities in the past. A quick tenant credit check shows you current and delinquent accounts, collections, monthly obligations, account balances, FICO credit score, and more.

Background

Screening your potential tenants before you allow them to move into your rental property, gives you a good idea of their history. An eviction search can provide nationwide eviction data within a day. Wouldn't you want to know if your potential tenant has been evicted in the past for; throwing loud parties, dealing or manufacturing drugs, not paying rent, or damaging someone else's property?  You have put time and money into your rentals, and if you allow people to live there who don't care about the neighborhood or who allow their friends or families to destroy the property, you are going to lose time and money.  The only way you can verify what a tenant is telling you is the truth is to screen them.

Criminal

You want to be sure that you are not allowing anyone to rent from you that has a history of doing illegal things or might be prone to doing anything that could get you into trouble as the owner of the property. There is a nationwide criminal search you can run that instantly produces a multi-state report of criminal records. Each criminal search report contains the information you need, including felony and misdemeanor records, sex-offender records, inmate records, and arrest information. In addition, a Social Security validation report is an inexpensive way to ensure the prospective tenant is who they say they are.

Screening your potential tenants is always a good idea, and with good property management software, such as Rentec Direct, screening tenants is quick and easy.  You want to be sure that you are renting to people who will appreciate the home, take care of it, be good tenants and if all the previous are true, never move.

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Dulcey is a member of Rentec Direct who provides Property Management Software, tenant ach payment processing, tenant credit check, and criminal reports for property managers and landlords. The information in this post is just that, informational and should not be used as a substitute for legal consult or advice.