Screening tenants for payment history

[April Adams]

Hi BP,

Can you help me out and take this quick, anonymous survey? I want to know how you screen for a tenants payment history.

https://docs.google.com/forms/...

[Jill F.]

There were a number of questions where we I really needed multiple options,

like rent collection, screening criteria in lieu of payment history, and advertising... We use Buildium property management sofware which gives us multiple options-- we offer ach but do not accept paper checks, we'll take credit cards, and we'll take cash via paynearme where tenants can pay at walmart, cvs, walgreens, 7-11 stores and a few other retail locations

For advertising, I set up my own zillow account because the Buildium sydication takes longer to post and will not allow me to make on-the-fly changes. I don't even mess with the other services because I get more/better responses from zillow.

We have 53 units with 31 one-bedrooms so our tenant base is very, very young; For very young people getting their first place I will consider quality personal references from unrelated adults like a pastor/teacher/coach and school transcripts and length of employment and a good employer reference.