You are the owner of an apartment or apartment building and wish to rent your units to reliable tenants. In the past you have encountered tenants who were negligent in paying the rent on time each month, or who, once delinquent in their rent, simply abandoned the property, often leaving behind considerable damage that a security deposit could not possibly cover. What if your tenants often had loud parties in which neighbors needed to call the police? Even worse, what if they were engaged in illegal activities involving drugs or sex?
You can quickly see how an ideal revenue source can turn nightmarish. It is for this reason that every step must be taken to ensure that the tenants you rent your properties to are honest, responsible, and financially stable. A simple face-to-face meeting, where the applicant shows himself or herself to be friendly and eager to move in, and can even provide proof of employment with a pay stub or a list of references, is simply unacceptable in this day and age.
A much more detailed background check must be conducted where you can get a complete—and accurate—picture of the prospective tenant. This is where we come in. By using our Tenant Screening Services you can verify the tenant’s identity and his or her residences for the past two years, often with evaluations from previous landlords and any actions taken by them (such as evictions, notices of violations, late payments, or failures to make payments). Other useful information that can be uncovered is what neighbors thought of the tenant, and whether he or she kept a clean apartment, versus one who attracted bugs or mice, or habitually caused damage to the premises.
Tenant Credit Reports can be generated that will show the applicant’s credit history (revealing bankruptcies, credit card defaults, late payments, and payment defaults), and employment history (length of employment, type of position, and salary). All this will go a long way in determining whether the tenant has the necessary means to pay the rent in full and can be relied upon to do so in a timely fashion.
In addition, our Advanced Tenant Screening Reports can uncover such things as whether the applicant has a criminal background, which will specify the nature of the crimes (including any sex offender violations), when they occurred, and the applicant’s current status; whether he or she has committed Social Security number fraud; or written bad checks. Failure to do such searches may lead you to unwittingly rent to a tenant of questionable character, one who may cause you much personal and financial distress. It is also possible that your other tenants may be distraught that you allowed a tenant with a checkered past to reside in the same building, and they may ultimately decide not to renew their leases based on your oversight. Naturally this a situation that must be avoided and is preventable with our assistance.
In the past, for you to collect all this information would have taken countless hours and even days of your time in making phone calls (and not having them returned), checking state and federal databases, and tracking down references and previous landlords—an exasperating process made even more complicated if a tenant has moved from state to state. But now with a simple click of the mouse, you can have all this data at your fingertips. In minutes, and not hours or days, TenantAlert.com can provide you with the accurate and comprehensive data you need to make an informed decision about your prospective tenant. You will know right away if the tenant has lied or been forthright in his or her rental application, and whether there are any issues that make him or her an unsuitable tenant. By using our resources you can uncover the ideal tenants, those who are financially sound, reliable, and will be respectful of you and your property.
