Opinions of NTN (for tenant credit report), etc.?

Question

Are people here still having success with credit screening services like NTN? 
I did not do a credit check a year ago with my first rental and got lucky with good tenants, but now after reading some of the stories here I'm going to start doing it.

With NTN (and I assume some other places), you can set certain criteria like "unpaid medical bills up to $1000 ok" and then they will give you a pass/fail on the applicant.

This is appealing to me in the sense that since I don't see the actual credit report I don't have to jump through the FCRA hoops and it makes the decision process black and white regarding the applicant. On the other hand, I don't know if I should really be looking at a finer level of detail on the credit report to make the decision?

This has been discussed here before but the threads I saw are several years old, so I was wondering how this works in today's financial/credit environment.

Steve Babiak · Answer

They were charging a bit more for that in my area, that's why I was wondering what you were getting for your money.  Thanks for the input.  I've been able to get a PM to do my report retrievals, for less than the NTN report.

Tenant applicants freak when the application fee (just enough to cover the screening reports) gets higher than other landlords are charging.

Sharad M. · Answer

Depends on what I get. If I get their DecisionPoint plus TU report, it's $20, but if I want to add another credit report from Experian, I think it's additional $15/report. I can also add SS Trace for another $5.

But $20 report from NTN combined with following up with references from the tenant's application gives me more than enough information to make a well informed decision.

Sharad M. · Answer

Hi Bienes,

I use NTN and my experience has been really good so far. I paid $60 fee to be accredited and now I get access to full credit reports, criminal and background record. I have been very happy with the service so far.

Rory Cummins · Answer

I'd always recommend doing both a credit and background check. You can find services out there that will do both in less than twenty minutes for as little as $20 which is well worth it. I didn't do this on my first rental and although things have worked out with them, they are very slow payers and its always been an issue which could've been prevented. From then on, its always been worth it to run the report b/c you never know who you are dealing with.

And of course, if you find out they have shaky credit, you could always just require a much larger down payment to justify your risk. Most tenants in that situation will go along with that if they truly want to rent your property.

Hope that helps....

Steve Babiak · Answer

I last used NTN prior to the changes that required all those hoops you mention, and at that time was only using their credit and eviction history screenings.  Was OK for me.

But they seem pricey nowadays, since there are services that will do the same things for one lump sum.  NTN wants each thing to be a separate line item.  Think of other services as offering pricing sort of like a fast food "value meal", but NTN only has a menu where you pay for fries and drink as separate items.

Not seeing the actual reports, as you mentoned, is not the way I've done things, so I can't comment on that aspect.

Bienes Raices · Answer

For anyone who's gotten the onsite inspection for the credit report, is that a one time inspection? i.e. if later on you decided to switch from NTN (for example) to some other service, do you have to go through the on site inspection all over again?

Bienes Raices · Answer

has anyone tried Mr. Landlord?

Bienes Raices · Answer

I think NTN must have dropped their prices a lot over the last year or so. A year ago they were charging $57 total for eviction, crim. + credit "score" (their pass/fail recommendation--you didn't get to see the actual credit report) in my area. Which seemed way to high to me.

Steve Babiak · Answer

Just reports, believe it or not.

Sharad M. · Answer

So are you able to get this PM just to run reports for you or are you usin this PM to manage the properties for you as well?

Opinions of NTN (for tenant credit report), etc.?

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