As the oldest and most experienced online rent payment service company, we have gotten a lot of questions about landlording over the years. One of the frequent questions is “How can I be assured that my tenants will pay me rent?” One of the best things that a landlord can do, from our experience, is to always do tenant screening.
Tenant Screening Protects Landlords
Your rental property is expensive. Before you hand over the keys to such an expensive property, wouldn’t you want to know as much as possible about the financial behavior of your renter?
TransUnion estimates that the cost of an eviction is $2,500-$3,500 and takes three to four weeks.
Moreover, while tenant screening isn’t perfect, a high credit score statistically correlates to a high likelihood that a landlord will be paid. You can’t be a successful landlord if you are not getting paid.
Tenant Screening Can Be Easy and Free
OK. But isn’t tenant screening a hassle?
Nothing could be further from the truth. Modern tenant screening can be done without a site inspection, and the cost (roughly $40 for a complete credit check with criminal background and eviction history) can be specified to be paid by the tenant. Effectively, tenant screening is free for you as the landlord.
ClearNow recommends starting at https://clearnow.mysmartmove.com/. The process is entirely online, landlords can specify that the tenant pays, and the results come from TransUnion, one of the big 3 credit bureaus. You can get tenant screening results within minutes.