To all landlords,

How would you feel if a property manager who does not manage any of your portfolio came to you and said they have a tenant already screened that would like to rent from you.

That property manager used TransUnion SmartMove to screen the tenant, and the screening looks great!

Would you accept that screening or would you still want the potential tenant to go through your screening process?

I screen everyone, except....wait, no it's everyone.

You screened them for me? Great, thanks for doing that. I'm going to screen them now.

Except for....no wait, screen everyone. 

The only way this stuff works, is to follow your policies every single time.

If the tenant was local, I'd ask for copy of application, do court records searches, check employment and references and take it without re-running (and charging for another smartmove).

If this is just some random PM contacting you... "thanks for the lead, but I screen but I screen all applicants" is my answer.  If this PM is looking for a commission, sure, I'll pay something reasonable if I ultimately end up renting to this tenant.

I use SmartMove also and like it, but as mentioned above, screen everyone.  You don't know if its been edited; which isn't hard.  You are required by law to have a consistent and fair process.  Does your process allow for whoever wants to supply their own background check to you?  Mine sure does not.  Also, I evaluate a lot more than the background check.  Its important, but not everything.  I also check income, savings, credit score (which is on SmartMove), personally interview the applicants to get a feel for them, and so on.

I don't really have experience in this but I would agree with the above, do the check.  The way I would look at it is, what's the worst that could happen, you put a little time and effort in and the outlook is still great.  To not do it and have something go wrong, you'll be kicking yourself and could end up costing you a lot more.  At least this way if something goes wrong you know it's on you, not because you just accepted what was given to you.

You built a process, best bet is to stick with it.

Screen everyone

No I would not accept another property managers screening.  All applicants must apply according to the same criteria and meet all the same qualifications.  One of those criteria is they have to complete the exact same screening.