Reasons You Should Conduct Tenant Background Screening

Tenant Background Screening can reduce bad tenants by as much as 90%.

Unfortunately, there happens to be millions of landlords who simply don’t do tenant background screening.  Some are just unaware of how to effectively conduct tenant screening, and others who just don’t believe that it will have any positive impact on the kind of quality tenants that they will approve.

Don’t Ever Rely Upon the Representations or Appearance of Your Rental Applicants

Some landlords may find it shocking, but the truth is there are many liars and frauds who make a living off of scamming and defrauding landlords of rent.  It is actually quite easy to do because there are so many unsuspecting landlords who simply don’t bother with running a tenant background screening.   And even for those landlords who do feel that they are conducting tenant screening, their methods have much to be desired.  For example, running a credit report and obtaining a FICO score IS NOT how you screen tenants.  This type of an approach will often provide the landlord with misleading information and often neglects to provide incredibily important data such as judgments, liens, and evictions.

Don’t be deceived by “clean cut” looking people who drive up in a late model vehicle who appear to be credible.   Just because your applicant can tell you a very convincing story in describing a solid financial picture, if it a huge mistake to just believe what they say and approve them to move in without a 3rd party independent tenant screening report that verifies the information that your rental applicant shares with you in a written rental application.

Every Prospective Tenant Should Be Required to Complete a Rental Application

A vital part of a tenant background check is having your potential tenant provide you with a written history that documents his or her personal and financial background in the form of a rental application.   This step should never be avoided because you need this information in order to evaluate your applicant and compare the information he or she provides with the results in the tenant screening report.   This completed rental application also provides your applicants consent to conduct a background check.

Bad Tenants Can be Significantly Reduced with a Good Tenant Background Check

We have found from experience that undesirable and unwanted tenants can be reduced by as much as 90% if you, the landlord, use the data obtained from the tenant screening report to elminate applicants possessing a history of red flags such as a serious criminal history, judgments and evictions, etc.