Why screening is the highest-leverage step
A bad tenant costs far more than a vacant week. Lost rent, legal fees, turnover, and damage can erase a year of returns. Screening is the cheapest insurance an owner can buy.
The goal is not to find a perfect applicant. It is to apply consistent, defensible criteria to every applicant so the decision holds up.
What to verify
Credit, read in the context of verified income rather than as a single number. Income and employment, verified directly. Identity, confirmed against the application. Eviction and rental history through court records. And landlord references through real conversations.
Each check answers a different question. Together they form a complete picture; alone, any one of them can mislead.
Staying compliant
The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination based on protected classes. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) governs how credit information is used and what disclosures applicants are owed.
The safest practice is to set written criteria before the unit is advertised and apply them evenly to every applicant, then document the decision. Consistency is the defense.
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