@Vinh Nguyen several good suggestions where offered. Be aware that there are many rental property manager websites you can use for screening. They all use one of the major credit agencies. No matter which credit agency they use, it should return similar information. The three credit bureaus are TransUnion, Experian and Equifax
Hard pull versus soft pull:
A hard pull is when you pull credit on someone. This is when you are providing the persons name, social security number and payment to a credit screening agency. The hard pull shows up on their credit report. A hard pull has a negative effect on their credit score. A soft pull is when the tenant requests their own credit report. They provide their information to the credit agency and they pay. They agree to SHARE it with you. The screening service provides a copy directly to you AFTER the tenant has seen it themselves. The other advantage of a soft pull is it removes you from certain data handling and credit screening laws. If you do a hard pull and reject someone based on that pull, you are required to provide a letter explaining why they were rejected. If you do a soft pull, the applicant knows exactly what you see. Most every service uses soft pull, so as long as you are not typing in the applicants social security number or paying, it should be soft pull. Avoid hard pull.
Here is a summary of services mentioned in this thread:
Smartmove is tenant screening provided directly by a credit reporting company, TransUnion. One advantage of using their service is that TransUnion is a well know and trusted company. This is a soft pull service.
Cozy is an application, credit screening and rent collection service. Be aware that Cozy is no longer accepting new customers. They were acquired by CoStar Group and they are redirecting customers to Apartments.com. The advantage of Apartments.com is they also offer a listing service to advertise properties with a decent amount traffic. Apartments.com uses TransUnion for soft pull credit reports, so you will get the identical report you would get through Smartmove. Cozy uses Experian for credit reporting, so existing users setup on Cozy are getting Experian credit reports. There is not much difference between TransUnion and Experian credit reports. Bottom line is you cannot sign up with Cozy, so it will be Apartments.com. In addition to listing your property on Apartments.com, you can also accept applications and collect rent. Just a note for people already using Cozy, they will be moving all their accounts over to Apartments.com this year some time. I was told this directly by Apartments.com.
RentPrep is an application, credit screening and rent collection service. They also use TransUnion for soft pulls.
Rentspree is an application and credit screening service. They also use TransUnion for soft pulls. I don't think they offer rent collection.
Myrental is just for application and credit screening services. They don't disclose who they run credit through, other than saying one of the big three.
Zillow is a listing service, application services, credit screening and rent collection service. Zillow is comparable to Apartments.com (Cozy). Zillow soft pulls their credit reports through Experian similar to Cozy.
Summary:
I personally use Cozy, which gives me Experian credit reports. I have been happy with the information provided. As I mentioned, Cozy is pushing people over to Apartments.com, so I will end up there in the next year. I like using Cozy because tenants sign up one time and use the same account for rent collection. If you use Smartmove, you still need to set the tenant up someplace else if you are collecting rent online (you want to collect rent online). You may notice I added Zillow as an option in the services I summarized. They are newer to the screening and rent collection business, but Zillow is the number one place for listing rental properties.
If I was shopping services today, I would compare Apartments.com and Zillow. They are the only places where you can list a property (and actually generate viewing traffic), accept applications, do credit and background screening and collect rent. The actual credit reports are not going to be much different. You are going to get a TransUnion or Experian report most likely whomever you use. I like the one-stop shop benefit, because managing less services is a time saver.
I used rentprep.com, they're pretty easy and the best part is that they allow you to put everything on the tenant. There is no transfer of sensitive information at all to you, just simply get their email and name. Also, they can pay for it directly as well.
I second the use of Cozy! Tenant fills out online and pays $39.99 for credit and background check. The easy to follow reports are sent directly to you for review. It will be a soft credit pull as well if they ask, which won't affect their credit. I use Cozy specifically for this and rent collection and it makes life so much easier. I have used them for application process as well once, and that seemed to work well enough too.
@Anthony Vaiana thank you! I’m debating between cozy and mysmartmove. Thoughts?
I have no experience with mysmartmove here so I can't say. Not sure if it is used purely for credit and background, which Cozy would still be good idea for rent collection then. But sure for the purpose of your post, you can't go wrong with either!
Hi, what's the best site to get a tenant's credit score? and is it free?
Also, is it important to check criminal history? if yes, what's the site to do so?
Thank you!
no, not free. It’ll cost you $20-100 depending on the report you want to run. Check everything!!! If you don’t, you'll regret it. It’s worth it. Tenant screening is 99% of property management. Do it right! Do it thoroughly! if I could show up at a prospects house abs let myself in to see how they’re living, I would. And I have! Try ctcredit.net Also, search their name in local county court for current eviction cases. There may be one pending now! And it won’t show up in criminal background checks as it’s “pending”.
Do a real thorough credit, criminal background check. Do it thoroughly. If you don’t, the one you skimp on, will be the one you’ll find yourself in eviction court and paying your attorney $5,000 + months of lost rents to get them out.
Do screening thoroughly. It is one of the most important things you will do as a real estate investor.
I use mysmartmove.com and have the tenant pay. Provides a Transunion credit report, eviction and criminal history. If you are a beginner reading the reports it provides an overview and recommendation.
I’ve used http://Ezlandlordforms.com. It was recommended by a friend who also has rental properties. The prospective tenant pays for the fees. You just need their email address. You can also have them fill out the rental/lease application online. And they have lease agreements as well. It is state specific and you can keep track of all your applicants through the site.
I am not sure if the background checking by any of them is nationwide or just local. I do not think they check SSN ID theft.I may try other service people suggested here.
@Vinh Nguyen several good suggestions where offered. Be aware that there are many rental property manager websites you can use for screening. They all use one of the major credit agencies. No matter which credit agency they use, it should return similar information. The three credit bureaus are TransUnion, Experian and Equifax
Hard pull versus soft pull:
A hard pull is when you pull credit on someone. This is when you are providing the persons name, social security number and payment to a credit screening agency. The hard pull shows up on their credit report. A hard pull has a negative effect on their credit score. A soft pull is when the tenant requests their own credit report. They provide their information to the credit agency and they pay. They agree to SHARE it with you. The screening service provides a copy directly to you AFTER the tenant has seen it themselves. The other advantage of a soft pull is it removes you from certain data handling and credit screening laws. If you do a hard pull and reject someone based on that pull, you are required to provide a letter explaining why they were rejected. If you do a soft pull, the applicant knows exactly what you see. Most every service uses soft pull, so as long as you are not typing in the applicants social security number or paying, it should be soft pull. Avoid hard pull.
Here is a summary of services mentioned in this thread:
Smartmove is tenant screening provided directly by a credit reporting company, TransUnion. One advantage of using their service is that TransUnion is a well know and trusted company. This is a soft pull service.
Cozy is an application, credit screening and rent collection service. Be aware that Cozy is no longer accepting new customers. They were acquired by CoStar Group and they are redirecting customers to Apartments.com. The advantage of Apartments.com is they also offer a listing service to advertise properties with a decent amount traffic. Apartments.com uses TransUnion for soft pull credit reports, so you will get the identical report you would get through Smartmove. Cozy uses Experian for credit reporting, so existing users setup on Cozy are getting Experian credit reports. There is not much difference between TransUnion and Experian credit reports. Bottom line is you cannot sign up with Cozy, so it will be Apartments.com. In addition to listing your property on Apartments.com, you can also accept applications and collect rent. Just a note for people already using Cozy, they will be moving all their accounts over to Apartments.com this year some time. I was told this directly by Apartments.com.
RentPrep is an application, credit screening and rent collection service. They also use TransUnion for soft pulls.
Rentspree is an application and credit screening service. They also use TransUnion for soft pulls. I don't think they offer rent collection.
Myrental is just for application and credit screening services. They don't disclose who they run credit through, other than saying one of the big three.
Zillow is a listing service, application services, credit screening and rent collection service. Zillow is comparable to Apartments.com (Cozy). Zillow soft pulls their credit reports through Experian similar to Cozy.
Summary:
I personally use Cozy, which gives me Experian credit reports. I have been happy with the information provided. As I mentioned, Cozy is pushing people over to Apartments.com, so I will end up there in the next year. I like using Cozy because tenants sign up one time and use the same account for rent collection. If you use Smartmove, you still need to set the tenant up someplace else if you are collecting rent online (you want to collect rent online). You may notice I added Zillow as an option in the services I summarized. They are newer to the screening and rent collection business, but Zillow is the number one place for listing rental properties.
If I was shopping services today, I would compare Apartments.com and Zillow. They are the only places where you can list a property (and actually generate viewing traffic), accept applications, do credit and background screening and collect rent. The actual credit reports are not going to be much different. You are going to get a TransUnion or Experian report most likely whomever you use. I like the one-stop shop benefit, because managing less services is a time saver.
I use Cozy.co. it's free and you can do credit and background check that they pay for directly. It's also very good for tracking rental income. good luck!
Bigger Pockets actually offers tenant screening through a trusted partner. You can check this out in Tenant Screening under the Tools tab. There are two options available depending on what you are looking for; a tenant involvement and a no tenant involvement package.
Also, all tenant screening inquiries were changed to soft pulls as of July 2020 so whether or not a credit check is a hard or soft pull is not something you will need to be concerned about as they should all be soft pulls.
I'm probably late, but I use :MyRental.com provided by CoreLogic. I get a discount that I pass to the applicants. They pay for themselves.
I would also consider Cozy.co. I use them for rent collection and managing, so it would be easy. They also have an applicant pay option.
The evil empire Z-word also allows it now, I believe. They are charging landlords for ads now, so I wouldn't use them even if it was free to me.
Also, yes, I think it is important to screen credit and background. I don't automatically disallow everything but if there's something we need to talk about , we will have a conversation before moving forward. Like an application / resume before the job interview. It lets you see some areas of conversation before the convo.
And, FYI, simply doing the screening makes most bad apples self-select out, so you don't have to deal with them. A ton of "applicants" just never fill out the application once they know it will be followed by a background and credit check -- they just disappear.