BACK ROUND CHECK

[Erin C.]

Does anyone have a suggestion of where to get a background Check done on a possible new tenant? I am planning on getting income verification, having her fill out an application, and doing a background check. I also need to get a copy of a good lease. If anyone has suggestions of how to go about all of this (where to find paper work for application and a lease) any help would be appreciated. Thanks! Also, if the background check costs money, do you have the tenant pay for this?

[Kelly N.]

We have been using rentecdirect.com- I charge the prospective tenant $30 for a background check fee and Rentec Direct charges me $29.45 for a criminal/credit/eviction check, but you can choose to buy those reports separately if you like.  I still verify employment and call past and current landlords myself, just part of doing business.

There are applications you can use on BP's fileplace, that's where I got mine.  I do plan to tweak mine at some point to include a few things I am interested in- length of lease desired and more info on their employment and reasons for moving, for now I just work those questions into the conversation.  There are some items on my app I don't feel that I need- namely bank account #'s but I do like to know they have some savings.

I got my lease from other local landlords, and adjust that as needed- mainly adding things to the addenda that aren't covered in a normal lease but crop up with my tenant pool :)  such as that they are responsible for the light bulbs in their unit, not to use the stove for heat, when to take out trash, etc.