The tenant screening process is very much important for all landlords to assess the prospect’s ability to meet the expectations of the landlord in many different aspects. These expectations may include the ability to pay the rent on time, to respect his fellow tenants’ living in the property, and his responsibility to help keep the safety of the premises. Landlords may be able to perform this background check on their own when they have all the time. They can do it by making his informal investigation to verify whether every piece of information written on the application form is correct or not, thereby exerting the necessary effort that goes with it at no expense. On the other hand, he can also do the background check by consulting to online screening service agencies for small or large costs depending on the degree of the background report.

To avoid property damage, failure to pay rent, and other negative outcomes, property owners carry out tenant background checks. Tenant screening must follow federal fair housing laws; otherwise landlords can face hefty fines. One of the standards landlords look into when checking on a prospect is his credit history. It basically shows a prospect’s means of paying his financial obligations in a timely or overdue manner. Looking into a person’s credit history can say a lot about the person’s potential to pay the rent either on time or behind schedule making it an essential too in tenant screening. When the landlord sees that a prospect habitually failed to pay the rent on time from previous landlords, he will automatically reject the application

Evictions indicate that a renter has posed major problems for previous landlords. County and federal-level databases contain information for tenant screening on evictions, but accessing this information is too time-consuming for the average small property owner. This is one of many reasons why many property managers and owners choose to outsource their background check procedures to third parties. Companies that perform tenant background checks have often dedicated years to gathering eviction history tools, so they can usually perform this service at a lower cost.

However, this is not the only factor landlords look into. Who knows? Maybe the prospect failed to pay the rent on the dot because times were financially harder for him before, but currently he is well stable and his financial records say so? At the same time, when a landlord sees that the prospect is prompt in paying his obligations and never misses out on the schedule, it a good sign of profit for the landlord. When the prospect has some imperfections on his credit history, a thorough interview as a part of the tenant screening might be fair enough to conduct especially when the prospect was so open and honest to say it because he wants to show the landlord that not only is he interested in the unit, he is also marketing himself to never be a cause of future troubles.