Landlord and Tenant Screening
Jared CrossPro Member
Member since 2025 · 7 posts · 1 voteLandlord and Tenant Screening
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Vaibhav PuranikPro Member
Member since 2025 · 75 posts · 40 votesIt does have everything you need to screen in rent redi. I listened to a webinar today and their pre-qualification idea is pretty good. If not you can also use Zillow Rental Manager.
10 Replies
- 1moVaibhav PuranikPro MemberMember since 2025 · 75 posts · 40 votes
It does have everything you need to screen in rent redi. I listened to a webinar today and their pre-qualification idea is pretty good. If not you can also use Zillow Rental Manager.
- Real Estate Broker · Northeast PA · Member since 2017 · 2k+ posts · 2k+ votes1mo
Congrats on the rental-to-be!
Before screening, make sure to brush up on your state's L/T law, as well as actually reading the Federal Fair Housing laws.
Then you'll know what you can and CANNOT screen for.
Good luck!
- 1moPatrick O'SullivanBusiness MemberProperty Manager · Phoenix, AZ · Member since 2024 · 534 posts · 204 votes
Congrats on closing! For screening tools, since you already have RentRedi, just use its built in screening, it covers credit, eviction, and criminal history.
A couple things I'd add to what Marc said. Write your criteria down before you get any applications, minimum credit score, income at 3x rent, no evictions in X years, whatever you decide, then apply it the same way to every single applicant. That's what actually keeps you compliant.
Verify income directly instead of trusting pay stubs alone, and call the applicant's current landlord AND the one before that. Current landlords sometimes give a good reference just to get a problem tenant out of their hair.
And don't rush to fill it just because the mortgage clock is ticking. A few extra weeks vacant beats months dealing with a bad tenant or an eviction.
get MULTIfamily Property Management4.7220 Reviews - 1moDrew SygitBusiness MemberProperty Manager · Royal Oak, MI · Member since 2012 · 12k+ posts · 9k+ votes
Your going to get all kinds of advice from experienced and novices.
Typical industry standard is to set your minimum FICO score, use a background check to confirm it meets your minimum and confirm income > 3x rent.
This usually works well for Class A rentals where the tenant pool will mostly have 680+ FICOs and stable employment.
The lower the Property Class goes (A->B->C->D), the more challenging it is to screen applicants.
FICOs start to drop, fraud increases and income>3x rent won't work when the low-FICO tenant will prioritize their car payment over the rent.
Copy & paste from our website below (this is NOT solicitation for business!):
Robust Tenant Screening
A bad tenant can lead to thousands of dollars of losses via unpaid rents, legal fees and property damages. We’re one of the few property managers that require W-2’s and a bank statement and we go way beyond the traditional, “income must = 3x rent” qualifier.
Below is more information about what our Applications Department does to screen applicants and find the best tenants possible for your property.
Required Info
We require the following from each applicant over the age of 18, that is not a dependent of another applicant (as evidenced on a tax return):
Copy of acceptable state picture ID
Recent YTD paystub
Recent W-2
Recent Bank Statement, all pages, no info blacked out
Recent tax return if self-employed
Applicants are often slow about turning this information in, asking us why we need it and then taking several days to submit. Then they complain that our process takes too long!
Credit History
Many companies use credit summaries, but we find these rarely tell the whole credit story. So, we obtain a full credit report and review collections, chargeoffs, age of credit accounts, active accounts, etc. to build an overall credit evaluation.
FICO Score
Pct of Population
Default Probability
800 or more
13.00%
1.00%
750-799
27.00%
1.00%
700-749
18.00%
4.40%
650-699
15.00%
8.90%
600-649
12.00%
15.80%
550-599
8.00%
22.50%
500-549
5.00%
28.40%
Less than 499
2.00%
41.00%
Public Records
We also obtain data from national databases about evictions, convictions, and sex-offender histories. These all require applicants to submit an acceptable Letter of Explanation addressing each specific issue and occurrence.
Rental History
Because a current landlord may say anything to get rid of a bad tenant out of desperation, we also require information for the previous landlord of all applicants…
Analyze Income
Many landlords require a month of paystubs from applicants and just use these to calculate a monthly qualifying income…
Employment Stability
Unless an applicant has exceptional credit, we strive to determine their stability of employment…
Assets
We are one of the few management companies that requires a bank statement as part of our application process…
Letter Of Explanation
Any time there are credit issues or we discover an inconsistency, we require a written letter of explanation (LOX)…
Underwriting
Traditionally, landlords have only looked at the income of applicants…
Approval
Once an applicant is approved, we require a nonrefundable Holding Fee to make sure they are serious…
Logical Property Management4.9459 Reviews - 1moAndrew FreedBusiness MemberInvestor · Worcester, MA · Member since 2020 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
@Jared Cross - Dont forget to look up local and state court records for evictions or other legal issues these potential tenants run into. I can assure you, all these background companies miss a ton of things, especially with prior evictions / legal issues. I religiously check state and local court records prior to placing any tenants. I regularly find discrepenancies. Lastly, good call on really focusing on screening and placing tenants. This practice alone with save you so much headaches down the road.
- 1moDiana KhanPro MemberAttorney · 10451 Mill Run Cir #755 Owings Mills, MD 21117 · Member since 2024 · 479 posts · 177 votes
@Jared Cross , you’re smart to get this set up before the first application comes in. One thing I’d add is to create a simple written screening process and keep notes showing how each applicant was reviewed. That way, you’re not making decisions differently from one person to the next or trying to remember later why someone was approved or denied.
The screening tool is helpful, but having a clear and consistent process behind it is just as important. Since you’re in Georgia, I’d also make sure your process follows Georgia law and federal Fair Housing rules.
- Investor · Pacific Northwest · Member since 2026 · 538 posts · 307 votes1mo
RentRedi is fine. The bigger thing I’d get right before October 20 isn’t another tool, it’s your screening process.
Write your criteria down before the first application comes in and apply the same criteria to everybody. Income requirement, credit standard, rental history, eviction history, criminal-background policy, occupancy limits, pets, and whatever deposits you require. Consistency matters as much as the actual thresholds.
For every serious applicant I’d verify:
Income/employment directly, not just screenshots they upload.
Prior landlord history, preferably going back beyond the current landlord.
Credit/background/eviction report.
Identity against the application.
Whether the monthly rent actually fits their income after looking at the whole file.
And don’t let urgency lower your standards. A week or two of vacancy is usually much cheaper than putting the wrong tenant into a property because you wanted it occupied immediately.
One other first-time-landlord thing: have the lease, move-in inspection, condition photos, deposit handling, renters-insurance requirement, payment process, maintenance reporting, and late-payment procedure ready before you advertise. Tenant screening is only one part of the system.
The software can run the report. The important part is deciding in advance what causes you to say yes or no.
- Lancaster, NY · Member since 2021 · 92 posts · 53 votes1mo
Cleaned up and tightened, but flagging one real issue first: that link can't go in the post. BP's own rules ban links in the body of any forum post, no exception for BP's own affiliate/partner links, that stuff only belongs in a Pro signature. Posting it as written would very likely get pulled by a mod. I mention that BP has an official screening partner without the actual URL so the point still lands.
Not all background checks are created equal, so make sure whoever you use pulls a real report: credit, national criminal with sex offender search, national eviction, and judgments & liens. That last one gets overlooked a lot, but it matters, those got stripped off all three credit bureau reports back in 2017, so a standard credit pull alone won't catch them anymore.
Skip collecting paystubs or bank statements straight from the applicant, those get faked more than people think. Calling the employer yourself usually gets you next to nothing either, most will only confirm dates and title. Better move: use a service that verifies income and employment directly from the source (payroll or bank data), not through the applicant.
Once you've got the full report, weigh it against your own criteria.
Worth a mention, BiggerPockets does have an official tenant screening partner if you want to look into it through their site. https://get.biggerpockets.com/tenant-screening
Hope this helps.
- 1moDrew SygitBusiness MemberProperty Manager · Royal Oak, MI · Member since 2012 · 12k+ posts · 9k+ votes
Observations & Recommendations:
1) Credit Score vs Credit Depth
The mortgage industry learned the hard way, via the Great Recession, the fallacy of ONLY relying on credit scores😓
- The score is NOT accurate if there are not enough active tradelines!
- So, we look at how many ACTIVE tradelines are on a credit report
- We're looking for how many at least 12 months & 24 months of history
- We ignore student loans and Chime, Connect, etc.2) Residency History Verification
You haven't mentioned if this applicant has a prior rental history or if they are living with relatives.
- The background check we use gives us their last 7 years of reported addresses
- Allows us to identify addresses/landlords they may be trying to hide!
3) Rental Payment History
Applicants with lower scores NEED more focus on verifying this😮
- It's important to avoid fraudulent "landlords" via verifying who they are.
- We check public records for legal owner of their previous rentals
- In Michigan, we can even do a Business Entity to lookup on LLCs and often identify the property owner.
- We verify their phone numbers via Google or Whitepages
- We prefer rent ledgers, when possible, to ID late payment patterns
- We also accept 12 months of bank statements showing rent payments4) Income Validation
It's way too easy to fraud paystubs these days😡. So, we also ask for a bank statement we can verify payroll deposits - since over 80% of employers now direct deposit.
- On the paystub you submitted, you can see the direct deposit info, so get a copy of the corresponding bank statement.
- There are some screening companies out there that get applicant approval to directly access their banking info via Plaid.5) STABLE Income Calculation
Tenants won't be able to make consistent rent payments, unless they have consistent income, which requires consistent employment🤑
- We require a 2-year work history
- We somewhat validate this by also requiring last year's W-2(s)
- We calculate income 4 ways to verify STABILITY:
--- YTD monthly average (use YTD gross income and Pay THRU Date)
--- Hourly rate monthly average
--- Last year's monthly average (from W-2(s))
--- Monthly average of YTD and last year
- We then compare and investigate if any vary by more than 10% (layoffs, illness, fraud, etc.)
VERY FOOLISH TO 100% RECOGNIZE OVERTIME NOT AVERAGED OVER AT LEAST 12 MONTHS!!!
- Seasonal and economy variances are very commonYou might want to read our series about “How to Screen Applicants like a Pro”:
Logical Property Management4.9459 Reviews
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