Tenant Screening Reports Do I Need Really Need Them

Tenant screening reports are the foundation for choosing the right tenants. If you decide not to bother with tenant screening reports you could find yourself in a situation where the tenant you choose fails to pay their bills, is some kind of criminal, or is not credit worthy.

Screening a potential renter is one of the most important aspects of renting to someone, and it can tell you much more about the person that they may readily let on. Just as screening is important, the right reports are important too.

Tenant screening reports should cover many different areas. One of them should be their credit report. There are three major players in the tenant credit screening report business, agencies such as Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.

Do I need to get reports from all three of these agencies?

While some background credit information may be reported on one, or a couple of them, some companies don't report to all three, and this can mean that important information about a bankruptcy, or delinquency in payments may not show up. It may not make financial sense to get all 3 But is one enough? Of course there are services available that can pull together the information you need from the major sources.

Whichever avenue you choose for tenant screening reports make sure that all of your bases are covered, and nothing is left out, like social security number validation, employment history, credit history etc.

There are also other tenant screening reports that you also need. One of them is the eviction report. This report is a search for any and all evictions that were reported by state court databases, and can include any civil judgments, or UD/Skips. This is where the tenant upped and left the property without telling their previous landlord, or left owing money.

Other reports you need to get are for prior addresses, so you can see a history of the places they have lived in, some of these reports cover a whole twenty-year span. These reports tell you if your potential tenant has a history of long term or short-term occupancy.

Some of the other tenant screening reports that are also valuable are previous or current landlord verification, employment verification, and bank checks. The landlord and employment reports can tell you things like how long the prospective tenant has been working at their job, as well as information from their current or previous landlord that may be vital in whether or not you approve or reject the application.

One of the most important tenant screening reports is the criminal record background report. This report searches all criminal records, on the federal, state, and local levels. It can tell you if they have been involved in any criminal activities, no matter how far back, what kind of activities they were involved in, and what the results were, like convictions.

Now while all of these tenant screening reports may be a little confusing, and overwhelming, they don't have to be. There are an abundance of different companies that offer to do all these screenings for you for a fee.

When you consider even one bad tenant could send you hurtling into bankruptcy, let alone giving you a nervous breakkdown you will realize tenant screening reports are worth their weight in gold.