All Forum Posts by: Sarnen Steinbarth

 I am not sure you did it quite right.  After you do the "@" then start typing the persons name, a selection box will appear below.  Click on the person's name to address the response to them, like this: @Chelle Knijnenburg

Regarding Tenant Screening, I do like that TransUnion handles both the Credit Report and the Criminal Report.  Experian only does the credit report.  So that is a big plus, in my book and one of the reasons our company partnered with them to bring tenant screening to our users.

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About the Author

Sarnen Steinbarth, CDEI is an approved pre-license, core and continuing education real estate & property management course instructor.

Sarnen has years of experience as an educator and professional trainer as well as real world experience as a real estate business owner (having personally bought and sold nearly 100 rental units). He is a member of the Real Estate Educators Association (REEA), and has received the prestigious Certified Distance Education Instructor™ certification from the Association of Real Estate License Law Officials® (ARELLO). He has taught online courses through some of the largest nationwide online real estate education companies.

Sarnen’s firm grasp of regulatory matters has led to him being selected by state agencies to develop property management Core curriculum and teach “train the trainers” courses.

Sarnen has authored and contributed to a variety of real estate and property management publications throughout the industry. He has experience managing all types of real estate, including: single-family homes, multi-family complexes, storage units, commercial, and condominium/home owners associations. Sarnen is the founder and CEO of the landlord software company Turbo Tenant.

He has held salesperson, broker and property manager real estate licenses over the past 10 years.

Whether you have 1 unit or 100's, Turbo Tenant is 100% free for landlords and property managers.  

Not a trial, truly free.  www.turbotenant.com

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@Kirk Roberts

Are you looking for both credit and criminal reports?

@James Maher  

@Kyle J. Beat me to it. 

Do not "tear up" the current lease as it would transfer upon sale.

You should complete a Tenant Estoppel Statement as part of the sale.  It protects you, the seller and the tenant and helps to memorialize the accuracy of the existing lease going forward.

@John Morey

I think those 3 are a bit of an apples-to-oranges comparison.

Nearly every credit report uses data from all or some of the Big 3 credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian & TransUnion).

Of the 3 you mentioned only one of them (as far as I know) is directly affiliated with a major credit bureau TransUnion (SmartMove).

Of the 3 major credit bureaus I personally think that TransUnion has the best information, service and people in the industry.

For these reasons our company decided to partner with them.  So my vote would be SmartMove / TransUnion.

@William Cain  

I personally have never used lease defend, but I do know there are a lot of similar services out there.

I'll send you some info direct.

@Kim R.

There should not be a need to have a separate written application and an online application.  You should be able to easily see the information on the online application.

This is standard with most services that have an online application integrated with a screening service.

Some services are screening only, where you would need the tenants information from another source.

However to manually pull a credit report you would likely need to go through a on-site inspection.  So it is usually much easier for most owners to use an integrated service where the tenant enters their information and authorizes you to view their credit report.  This method also does not affect the tenant's credit in any way.

Regarding the pay stubs / license they should be able to upload that into the online application.  It should be unnecessary to have them bring it to a showing.

We have been doing ACH (e-check) payments for our tenants for a while and they really like it.

Have you tried posting on social media as well?

Signs?  Flyers?  

Postlets hits a bunch of the online websites, but certainly not all.  

Like @Nicole A. mentioned you may want some better pics.

Here is my list of 7 P's for moving real estate, photos being one of them:

• Price - Is your price right
• Promotion - Are you doing a good job getting the word out
• Property - Is it in good shape
• Policies - Are your policies reasonable (e.g.- Are you asking for 10x the monthly rent 28 prior landlord references, and only 800+ credit scores)
• Photos - Are they nice
• Place - Is it in a good location
• People - Is the demand cyclical - are people looking

(I think I need to make this into a blog post, yes?)