Tenant Screening: public records?

Question

I'm Currently screening tenants for the first time. I plan on using a service to help,  but I want to dig up as much useful information I can find for free online.

On a video I heard about "searching the public record."  My question is, how do I do that? Do I look at state, city, county court websites? What exactly should I be looking for?  If someone had an eviction filed can I find that free online? Can I find information about a divorce? Is public record national or state ?

What do you look for online when screening tenants?

My property is in Virginia Beach.

Patti Robertson · Answer

We are so lucky in Virginia that all our civil and criminal records are not only public, but we are able to easily view them on-line.  I have used lots of screening options, and find that none of them are reliable when it comes to reporting civil judgments.  I believe it has to do with the way the state records push into Lexus, where the screening software gleans it from.  I search every city that shows on the tenants, application, ID, paystubs, and credit report.  Below is a link where you can pull civil and criminal for Virginia.

https://www.vacourts.gov/casei...

Dawn P. · Answer

Look them up on VA courts. I also Google potential tenants and check to see if they have a Facebook or other social media. People post all kinds of stuff online, I found out one of my tenants was fostering kittens (didn't bother to run that by me) and another had a huge dog that wasn't approved.

Patti Robertson · Answer

Curious why you are interested in finding info about a divorce.  Yes, you can find that info in the Virginia Circuit Court records, but I have never found a need to know that info for a tenant screening.

Melanie Thomas · Answer

Congratulations on your latest investment venture!

Usually, you can find the kind of information you're looking for on the local county court's websites. It would be beneficial for you to establish a clear screening criteria, laying out your acceptable and non-acceptable conditions. It's important to apply this criteria uniformly to every prospective tenant in order to avoid any issues pertaining to fair housing laws. While you might feel inclined to manage it all yourself, I strongly suggest allowing the experts to take the reins. The risks associated with improper tenant placement are high, and you could save yourself a difficult lesson by ensuring it's handled correctly from the start.

Wishing you good fortune and great success in your investing journey!

Michael Bailey · Answer

@Michael Maliszesky congrats on becoming a new landlord!

Bigger Pockets actually offers tenant screening on their site through a trusted partner. There are multiple options available for screening packages; tenant involvement/no tenant involvement, instant reports, hand-compiled reports, and even income verification.

You can find further information by going to Tenant Screening under the Tools tab.

Best of luck to you!

Eliott Elias · Answer

Use a company that thoroughly screens potential tenants. They will pull their record, credit, and bank statements to see if they are a good candidate.

Patti Robertson · Answer

What we use to validate child support is to see that the funds actually flow through her bank account. A court order doesn't mean she is getting paid.  The vendor we use to validate what income is actually received is www.payscore.com.

Michael Maliszesky · Answer

I mentioned divorce, because an applicant was telling me about her divorce, and that affects her current living situation and also part of her income is a child support check. I was just wondering if all that stuff was on public record just so I could confirm her story.

For anyone reading this thread I found these websites give good info for free:

(Virginia court records) https://eapps.courts.state.va.us/CJISWeb/circuit.jsp

(property owner, to verify landlords) https://cvb.manatron.com/Tabs/PropertySearch.aspx

(for previous addresses) www.truepeoplesearch.com

Tenant Screening: public records?

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