6 Things Every Landlord Should Do With Tenant Background & Credit Checks

After you have the results from your background and credit check, you need to decide what exactly to do with that information.

6 Things You Should Do With Tenant Background & Credit Checks

1. Confirm they are who they say.

If they are listed as deceased or the Social Security number pulls up another individual’s name, you can probably say bye-bye.

2. Confirm the addresses on their background check coincide with the ones they listed on their application.

If there are any discrepancies, you will want to make a note of that and ask the applicant about the addresses in question. Most likely the response will be something like, “Oh, I forgot.” It is especially important to talk to the landlords the applicant tried to hide from you.

3. Look for any criminal convictions.

If there are any, you will need to decide if that criminal conviction makes the tenant a less likely candidate.

4. Look for any evictions.

5. Look for any judgments or liens.

If the tenant has a judgment on their background check and you will be denying them because of it, one way to respond to the applicant is by putting the ball in their court. “Hey John, your background check revealed a judgment owed to Property USA, LLC in the amount of $4,200. What can you tell me about that?” Likely, they’ll give you an excuse of some kind, but don’t buy into it. Instead, ask them to have the company in question get in touch with you, but you will need to put their application on hold until you hear from them. Don’t worry, you never will.

6. Finally, make sure they meet your credit requirement.

If the applicant meets your minimum standards for qualification in their background and credit check, you can move forward with the next step of processing the application by getting rental references.

[This article is an excerpt from Brandon Turner’s The Book on Managing Rental Properties.]

Landlords: Do you verify anything else when it comes to tenant background and credit checks?

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Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.