I also screen the company owner (or President, CEO, etc) and they are personally responsible for damages.Nobody pays that much and then lets their employees trash a place.

And if after a while I have a portfolio of strong stable properties while working my day job, even better.Long story short, I could get 10% through stocks, etc. but the primary difference is that I take pride in seeing something physical in operation, vs. just numbers on a screen.

"$995 for a local apartment complex for which he claims never to have lived at.I am very new to this whole process so I have not seen many different cases or scenarios pertaining to screening or anything, but I can't seem to figure out how someone can be a previous home owner, approaching retirement, with 3 years credit history.

So, in my process, I do NO pre-screening and simply schedule 2 open houses per week.

And than we get into the "fun" things like how to operate a website that drives millions of traffic weekly, so one can actually FIND a tenant, the various software systems to pre-screen persons, schedule showings, operate lease signings, and on and on and on. 

I do think a flat fee is wise.

We actually had good luck finding tenants on craigslist but you do want to make sure you screen them properly.

Clean the place up and rent it at market rate to a new tenant that you've screened/selected, and under your lease.

I've had to flat out tell a tenant that if you don't depart on time per the Notice, there will be consequences that neither of you will enjoy - and they include you filing for eviction on the 61st day which will make it difficult for  her to get quality housing and it will hurt her credit. 

Will see how he does the next cheapest on our market is about 6k a year flat fee..