All Forum Posts by: Jenna Columbus

@Harrison Elenowitz. Hello! My husband and I have 3 rentals in Vernon, CT and have had good luck with finding deals and tenants. I know that if you are looking for a multi family home in towns like Tolland and Ellington you are going to be limited with inventory. The home will be an item all other investors want to, so you will be in the mix with others that could have cash etc. Manchester is also a good place to look as we have looked there ourselves, we try to stay close when looking near the Bolton end of town or close to Main Street. Main Street in Manchester is working really hard right now to comeback. We have gone to a great meetup in Manchester CT hosted by Scott Hollister. I can't find the ents tab on my phone but I believe it's every month on the 1st Tuesday. Feel free to reach out if you have any other questions about the area! Good Luck and Welcome.

@Garfield Thompson We have buy and hold multi family properties in Tolland County. We started investing in CT about 4 years ago. We have had good luck finding deals and with diligence good tenants for our buildings. I would suggest finding a local Bigger Pockets Meet up. I attend the one in Manchester CT. I have met my Real estate attorney there, my loan officer and great resources that helped me become confident in the rental game. I hope that helps!

@Wy Kay. Hello, I totally agree. We always have the application go thru the website and they take the fee, not us. We don't see any funds from that information pull.

I'm just happy to see that we are doing the same things as everyone else and we aren't missing anything.

@Adam Biya. Thanks! $15 is a really reasonable price. I will look into that.

@Rachel Foster. We have been using the Avail site for everything. They use Experian to pull all the data for an application and they offer a discount to the applicant when they get all of the reports. We require all the reports anyway for the application. Thanks for your input. It sounds like what we are asking from an applicant is similar to what other landlords are asking and that makes me feel more confident.

@Giselle Negron thanks! I will look into that site!

@Bryan Blankenship thanks Bryan. I appreciate the response. I agree with you that if someone doesn't want to have those background checks done then I don't want them in my apartments.

@Joe Alford hello, I started offering a refund for applications that are accepted and people seem to be happy with that solution. I was just worried I was charging folks more than what others are to apply making my properties less appealing. Thanks for the advice!

@Charles Carillo thanks for the feedback. After seeing everyone's reply it sounds like I need to keep things the way they are.

Good Morning Everyone,

I wanted to learn what other folks are using for tenant background, credit and criminal checks. Our current process is thru a website called Avail and that has been pretty smooth but the application comes with a $45 fee paid for by the applicant. I know it's essential to get all these reports run but I feel like the $45 fee scares folks off along with the process of applying online. We switched to this process a few years ago because of the convenience on our end with no paperwork.

Would you suggest also adding a paper application back into the mix at the time of showing for the applicant to fill out? If so, would I still be able to charge the applicant for there background checks? Do you have any sites that you would recommend that do good work but have a lessor fee of $45 per applicant.

All feedback and suggestions are welcome!