Can you help me find these resources?

I'm in need of finding the following things:

1. Good reliable, legit ONLINE place to run credit/background/previous rental history checks on prospective tenants.

2. I need to find a good rental application. If there is a place to get a good example of one or one I can purchase that would be great.

3. Also need to find a good lease agreement. We have one but would like to look over a few others just to make sure we aren't forgetting or missing something in ours.

Oh and lastly, anyone that is a landlord in Ohio, if there is anything you can think of that we need to be aware of as far as laws, etc., please mention. Also in Ohio, Toledo in particular is it required that the landlord pay water/sewer? I know that the water bill follows the house/owner but not quite sure if we need to be the one responsible for paying that and include water/sewer.

Edited: 06/26/2010 at 08:51AM by Kel S

Scott M.

Real Estate Investor · Rochester Hills, Michigan

632 posts
4345 Influence
8 Awards

Icon_minipost Jul 04 '09, 11:45 AM

1. I use citicredit.net. Awhile back I used several services to see which one I liked best - they are instant for credit/social/criminal/bad check/eviction/etc...and generally w/in 24 hours for employment and landlord.

Everything is online VS in email which I like buy may or may not work for you - there are several other services I tried that did things VIA email.

My only complaint with them is if your given a bad number for say employment check they consider their job done - some services will call two or three numbers with no additional fee - so you just have to drill it into the tenant head to get it right. They - like most will talk about an on-sight visit if you are going to pull full credit reports VS just a credit score - they never did one for me.

For 2 and 3 not sure you work with a lawyer - If I remember you hubby is one so maybe you don't but that is where I got mine and since you have 2 homes and growing I would suggest you move in that direction rather then get one off lilne. I would find a good evection attorney locally - you will eventually need his/her services and they will have a good lease and rental app.

As for water - most states / counties have a way to get the water to follow the person - some places call it a waiver - some a water affidavit - I would call the local water department and ask for the landlord / tenant division (if they have one) as they will know if there is a way to get it off of you and onto the home.

I have yet to find a city that you can't charge them for water even if they don't have some official form to fill out to take it out of your name and put it in their name.

Edited: 06/26/2010 at 08:51AM by Scott M.

Jon Holdman

Real Estate Investor · Denver, Colorado

11853 posts
75493 Influence
15 Awards

Icon_minipost Jul 04 '09, 12:19 PM

There are some docs on our forms and contracts page. I looked at those, but didn't use any of them directly.

The gas/electric company here, Xcel energy, will let you do a landlord agreement. If the tenant moves out, the bill follows them. The water companies, however, have the bill follow the property. I've found no way to avoid that. Both water and gas/electric do have landlord notification so you can get notification if the tenant is late on their bill. They do let you put it in their name, though I've heard there's one city here that does not. Even then, I would just pass them bill directly along to them. My lease has a provision that anything I get from them would go to such a bill first, and the rent last, meaning if they don't pay me for the water bill I'll apply the "rent" to the water first, so the rent is then late.

I use tenantalert.com. Its all online and just takes a couple of minutes. They do credit, criminal, eviction, and prior residences. They don't do employment. I do that myself. I also contact prior landlords myself. There is something of a process to get signed up for these services. With most you have to have an on-site inspection of how you store the applications in order to get a full credit report. Otherwise you'll just get a summary red/yellow/green decision based on their criteria.

Edited: 06/26/2010 at 08:51AM

Jon Holdman, Flying Phoenix LLC

Michelle Grassling

Real Estate Investor · Simi Valley, California

6 posts
38 Influence

Icon_minipost Jul 04 '09, 01:09 PM

citicredit didnt make me do the onsight inspection either and i get the full report - they are supposed to but they dont.

i used to do all of my employment and landlord checking on my own as well but have found most servies able to do what i do. i do not sue citi for that though i use another service metro tenant info servics i think it is tennant-screening.com. i use citi for the other stuff and metro for emplyment and landlord.

Edited: 06/26/2010 at 08:51AM