5-Pronged Approach to Your Tenant Screening Process

Every person who’s ever been a landlord, thought about being a landlord, or casually mentioned it while watching a home renovation show has heard this sacred mantra: YOU NEED A GOOD TENANT SCREENING PROCESS.

Heck, at this point, you probably whisper it in your sleep. (I know I do—it really freaks out my dog.)

But it’s true. Having a solid tenant screening system is like having a cheat code for property management. With the right 5-pronged tenant screening approach—think of it as the superhero team of applications, background checks, income verification, and rental history—you’ll attract tenants who *gasp* pay rent on time, communicate, and treat your property like a home.

And then? You get to spend more time growing your business—and less time playing detective or knocking on doors to collect rent.

But what makes an actual tenant screening process efficient? Utilizing a 5-pronged tenant screening process (that includes comprehensive background checks, credit reports, criminal reports, eviction reports, and income and asset verification) can streamline how you handle your screening process for the future.

1. Income and Asset Verification

Part of a 5-pronged approach to tenant screening is verifying a tenant’s financial situation. Especially if you’re using a prequalification and application. A tenant prequalification essentially standardizes your minimum requirements into one efficient process of determining whether a renter meets the minimum income for your rental

Income and asset verification ensures you’re getting qualified tenants from the very beginning. It saves you (and tenants!) time and money by determining immediately if a renter has the financial, assets, or income requirements for your property.

2. Custom Applications

Take a good look at your application process. Is it pen-and-paper? Through email? What questions are you asking? What documents are you requiring?

Just because your cousin’s best friend’s college roommate’s dog can vouch for your prospective tenant doesn’t mean they will necessarily be a good tenant. It just means they’re a “good buddy” of someone you know, and good buddies can still skip town with 3 months’ worth of rent in the wind.

An application process ensures that you’re formalizing your tenant screening (always good legally) and asking for documents that authenticate that that good buddy is a good tenant with a good paycheck and a good track record of paying their rent.

With RentRedi’s custom applications, you can ensure you’re following legal procedure and standardizing the information you collect from tenants, as well as any other questions you deem relevant to include in your application!

3-5. Tenant Screening (Background Check)

Does your tenant have a criminal record? A great credit score? Have they been evicted before? Well, you’ll never know unless you ask for a full background check. A full background check typically includes a criminal, credit, and eviction report. This data gives you critical insight into a tenant’s state of affairs.

Running a background check is invaluable for verifying your tenant’s information and flagging any high-risk tenants. Trust me, it’s worth every penny—and at RentRedi, reports are tenant-paid so that you only have to work with serious inquiries into your rental.

Why a 5-pronged tenant screening approach works

Screening can be a roadblock to some landlords in the application process. There are a few hefty steps that can slow your tenant turnover time. However, with a property management platform like RentRedi, you can secure that high-quality tenant with a 5-pronged tenant screening approach that includes comprehensive background checks, credit reports, criminal reports, eviction reports, and income and asset verification.

Additionally, to ensure that landlords can still get vital tenant screening information without increasing vacancy time, we also made it automatic. Or, as we like to say, “auto-magic”. (Okay, it’s me. I like to say auto-magic.)

We gave landlords the option to make tenant-paid screening a step in their application process, so, like magic, you get a completed application AND report (background check, credit, criminal, eviction, and income reports)—all at once.

If you’ve heard us say it once—you’ve heard us say it a million times. But we’ll say it once more: GOOD TENANT SCREENING IS IMPORTANT. ES MUY IMPORTANTE. C’EST TRÈS IMPORTANT. It’s so important, we wrote it in a few other languages—just in case.

Consider your current tenant screening process objectively and ask yourself where it could benefit from a little revamping. Tenant prequalification, income and asset verification, custom applications, and a 5-pronged tenant screening approach are all critically designed components to ensure you’re finding high-quality tenants.