Proper Vetting With Background Checks For Tenants

Author: Heather Murphy

Times are tough and more people are having trouble paying their bills on time. Therefore, doing background check on tenants has assumed great significance for landlords to avoid having to deal with dead beat tenants or tenants who keep paying late. It is also a way to verify just what level the credit is on so that if there are only minor infractions, the tenant can be accepted.

What is a quality person? It seems very mercenary to judge people as quality or poor quality. However, if a person is in the rental business, due diligence on this issue will pay dividends in avoiding nightmares of having to go through the nasty eviction process. The credit score shows the history of missing payments and spending beyond means. This type of tenant is not the kind that a landlord will want to sign on with. The tenant screening process is enhanced by using a rental application and doing so online is even more convenient and effective. There are online property management software programs to look at for this tenant vetting process.

The background check is fundamental in due diligence over a potential tenant. It makes sound sense to learn about histories of theft, vandalism, terrorism, drug dealing, DWIs, and any other criminal behavior. A landlord can make a more informed decision about accepting or tolerating minor infractions on a background check. Doing this on property management software can allow for multiple screenings and make things easier.

Doing the employee criminal record search, social security verification and driving record check are essential in the vetting process. The data collected should also be current and complete to save time and the risk of making an uninformed decision about a tenant. The software can integrate access to proprietary web sites that offer the most current background data that searches over 8000 municipal, county, state and federal courthouse public databases throughout the United States.

The things to note in the employment history is the pattern of changing jobs. Although it is not necessarily an indication that a tenant is flakey if they change jobs often. Many times the work that they do is with temporary agencies, so this could look worse than it is. In this day and age, there are fewer full time permanent jobs to go around so many people might have temporary part time jobs and appear to be less stable than they actually are. It is not so easy to tell if this is a reliable tenant. A person with a steady job that they have held for years is probably not going to be renting a home but is more likely holding a mortgage or is a home owner.

Getting a letter of recommendation from them is a good idea. Asking the potential tenant for bank statements and credit card statements is also another useful way to judge if they can make their payments. A tenant with a good bank balance will be desirable as they will most likely make the rent on time. Background Check for Tenants is a very useful engagement for landlords.

If you are looking for the best criminal background checks online, the author of this article recommends Quickbackgroundchecks.com.