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RCR Update
By TINA DEFIORE, Director of Rental Credit Reporting, with RANDALL C. PATTON, SafeRent
FINDING GREAT RESIDENTS Why you should use a resident screening service.
DO YOU REALLY know who's living in your rental property? Most property managers have streamlined their search for good residents by moving to an online rental application. However, without a qualification process in place, a property owner is often left hoping the details on that application are accurate. Professional resident screening services can help take out the guesswork and make leasing decisions easier.
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Putting Together a Comprehensive Online Rental Application We don't often think of an application as a screening tool, but it contains almost all the information you need about each potential applicant. To that end, build an application that gathers the data you need most, including:
• Applicant's name and As much as your focus needs to be on your financontact information • Number of applicants cial well-being and other professional interests, you including both children also have a duty to protect your residents and and adults the community. • Number, type and size of pets • Employment information • Income Know Your Applicant's Credit History • Address history A simple three digit number could help de• Requested move-in date termine whether a potential applicant can • Preferred lease term maintain financial commitments, including If there are multiple applicants jointly applyrent. A credit score is a bank and a lender aping for a single property or unit, they will each proved way to understand someone's debt need to fill out a form so you can consider each repayment history. Though there are multiindividual based on their own merits. Paper apple credit bureaus, each with its scoring plications work, but offering online submission models, the criteria are primarily the same: is often more convenient and less time-con• Payment history suming for everyone involved. • Length of credit • Type of credit • Amount of credit versus credit used • Number of credit inquiries Credit checks may also serve as a secondary way to verify your applicant's name, possible aliases, social security number, known addresses and any other information in the public record.
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Protect Your Property & Community Criminal searches can be conducted by geographic area, including county or statewide inquiries, and include records related to misdemeanors, felony convictions or incarceration as provided by key sources, such as the Department of Corrections and the Administrative Office of the Courts. Reports usually include a potential applicant's background of violence, property destruction, sex offense or financial crime. As much as your focus needs to be on your financial well-being and other professional interests, you also have a duty to protect your residents and the community. Make a sex ofwww.haaonline.org
