Screening Tenants

[Jonathan Forisha]

Some say screening is the most important part! Doesn’t matter if you’ve got the prettiest rental in your market if you move in terrible tenants.

So to make sure you get the best tenants, you want to establish a really clear list of rental criteria. What’s your minimum acceptable credit score? Will you allow smoking indoors, or pets? Minimum monthly income?

You can also do additional things, like check out applicants’ social profiles or speak to their past landlords, but make sure that you’re doing those things for every applicant. This is the stage where it’s most likely that you’ll discriminate, even if you don’t do it consciously, so we recommend setting your criteria and then moving in the first applicant that checks all your boxes.

If you have two or more applicants who meet all your criteria then 1) congrats! and 2) we still recommend to move in the first one who came in. That’s the best way to completely avoid any possibility of discrimination. You’re not looking for a new best friend, you’re looking for a tenant who will pay on time and keep your property in good shape.

Screening reports are one of TurboTenant’s core features, and we use TransUnion data to show you credit score, eviction history, and criminal history (where allowed).

We recently made a webinar that talks more about screening: https://www.turbotenant.com/education/webinars/tenant-screening-in-2024/

turbotenant.com

Tenant Screening in 2024

Finding a great tenant is a science. This webinar breaks down the best practices landlords should use to find tenants who pay rent on time.

[Krista Reuther]

Tenant screening is the best way to protect your rental property, so kudos to you for asking this question.

First and foremost, you need to know that tenant screening is straightforward at its core – as a landlord, you’re required to accept the first applicant who meets your criteria. But what is tenant screening criteria, and how should you define it?

Your tenant screening criteria is a list of qualifications based on empirical evidence. In other words, it’s a set of requirements that help you choose an applicant who’s going to pay rent on time and treat your property well based on data. Tenant screening is NOT an area where you should rely on your gut; that can get you in major trouble with the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Why? Well, tenant screening is one of the interactions between a landlord and renters that can easily slip into fair housing violation territory if you’re not mindful and procedural in your approach.

If you didn’t know, the Fair Housing Act protects those in pursuit of housing from undue discrimination based on seven classes (on a national level – your local area may have additional protected classes):

• Race
• Color
• National Origin
• Religion
• Sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation)
• Familial Status
• Disability

That means that you can’t ban applicants from your rental based on these characteristics – and it also means you have to be thoughtful about what your tenant screening requirements are to ensure no one is disadvantaged through the process.

When we talk about tenant screening, there are some tried-and-true starting points to consider, such as requiring:

• A credit score between 560-850
• A rent-to-income ratio of 30% (though this requirement is getting more challenging as rent increases but wages don’t match pace)

But what about criminal history? And eviction history? Can you blanket ban anyone who has a criminal background or evictions on their record?

The answer is no, you can’t – check out our webinar on crime, evictions, and tenant screening to learn more!

hud.gov

Housing Discrimination Under the Fair Housing Act

Housing Discrimination Under the Fair Housing Act