Dear BP family,

I was wondering, which background tool do you use to screen your tenants?

Thank you all in advance

HI @Eli M. , I've used Zillow's Rental Manager (and their built-in background check), Hemlane, and TransUnion Smart  and have found Hemlane's reports to be the most useful.  Zillow's background check is a bit binary, which gets the job done, but leaves a bit to be desired.  Tranunion's background check portion works, well too, so I'd not hesitate to use it again.

I use www.tenanttracker.com for credit and criminal reports.

Does an eviction show up on a background check?

Hi @Eli M.  !

BiggerPockets has a landlord resources tab. You can find the landlord resources tab by hovering over the "tools" bar and clicking "Landlord Resources". Some of the companies on the resources page offer free forms and other resources for landlords.

On that same Landlord Resources page there is a list of recommended companies for tenant screening. I would recommend doing your research and picking the company that best fits your screening needs.

Best of luck! :)

I've only used cozy so can't speak to other options but the tenant pays them and it's returned quickly to you for viewing. 

Tellus. Free background/criminal checks, convenient banking rental collection via bank to bank, lots of reports for revenue/expenses categorized according to IRS rules, etc.

I post my rentals on Zillow. It lists them through a couple sites and also offers background check options. The applicants pay a flat fee for a background check and credit report(good for 30 days so they can use them on multiple listings). They also have an option to collect rent as well I believe but I opt to use Venmo.

@Eli M.

I use Cozy and Zillow. I have looked through a lot of credit and background checks through both. Personally I prefer Cozy. They break down each account and the payment history associated with each account. It makes it really easy to see what is going on with someone’s background and history.

A tip from cozy: if the background check does not come back instantly it means that there is something negative on there. I have almost rented to someone before it came back thinking it was a glitch.