Landlords - Screen your applicants!!!

[Nathan Gesner]

I love living in a small community!

One year ago, I was hired to help a landlord whose tenant had stopped paying. He rented to her without any screening. She had a lot of lease violations, late rent, etc. When he came to me, she was three months behind on rent, and her unauthorized dogs, cats, and roommates had caused about $4000 in damages. I was hired to get things back on track, but she wouldn't play ball, so I filed for eviction. She moved out a few days before the court hearing, so I canceled the eviction and sent her to collections for nearly $13,000.

Fast forward 10 months. I'm contacted by another landlord in the same town who needs help with a problematic tenant. He mentioned some of her behaviors, and I asked if her name was XXXXX YYYYYY. 

"How could you possibly know that?" he asks.

I gave him the background, and he admitted he didn't do any screening on her. 

She will get a nice surprise next week when I show up at her door to (a) announce that I am her new property manager and (b) notify her that I will update her information with the collection agency she's been hiding from.

Screen your applications, people!

[Maranda Tucker]

Quote from @Nathan Gesner:

Quote from @Maranda Tucker:

Most county records aren't public. Even if they have a public record in your county, they may have issues in another county that are not disclosed. Fortunately, people with criminal records typically have other issues like bad credit or landlord references.

True. The main lesson for us was that there is still a level of due diligence that our team must perform regardless of screening software. We were just really lucky to not have any major issues pop up until last year.