On the last post, Maria asked, “What made you pick this tenant over the other applicants?”

That’s fairly simple– if 5 tenants apply and all qualify, we pick the first who turned in the application. In this case, our new tenant applied and we continued to show the house and accept applications until the lease was signed. However, I only run one background check/credit report at a time and accept or deny before moving on to the next. In the past, we’ve had folks change their mind after being approved so this gives us a “Next!” (just in case.)

One of our houses is a very hot property and every time the ad goes in the paper, we’re deluged by applicants. When prospective tenants call, I tell them we’ll be taking applications for a week and the best qualified applicant will be accepted. Can’t get away with that for our other properties… folks are liable to find something else in the meantime

A Landlord’s Wishlist

Let’s say up front that I don’t like automatically disqualifying broad categories of people. For instance, responsible pet owners can make great tenants. A blanket declaration of “No Pets” cuts out a tremendous number of applicants. Still, it has to be done our way– no new puppies or kittens, no unneutered pets, nothing over 20 lbs, no breeds with a reputation of aggression or vicious nature, plus additional pet deposit of $250, additional rent of $25/month, and more frequent inspections of the premises.

I’ll have more about what we look for in a tenant later, but for now, here’s the unofficial list of druthers (you know, we’d druther have cornbread than grits.)

Druther #1: We’d rather not rent to someone building a new house– too unpredictable and almost certain to break the lease (or want to stay after giving notice when the contractor tells them it’ll be another 6 weeks.)

Druther #2: We’d rather rent to non-smokers and starting out, we had a policy to that effect. We soon found that everyone who applied was a non-smoker, and yet the house still reeked of nicotine on move-out (amazing how many folks pick up the habit after moving in, isn’t it?) Now, if we approve a smoker, we make it clear they’ll lose the entire deposit if they smoke in the house due to deodorizing cost after move-out and we get to say whether the house smells like smoke.

Druther #3: We’d rather not allow pets, but we do occasionally, on a case-by-case basis.

Druther #4: We’d rather not rent to roommates or those living together. They tend to fight and move out and neither wants to pay the rent.

Druther #5: We’d rather rent to someone with excellent credit scores (BWAHAHAHA)

Almost every applicant violates at least one of these, but its still a way to pick a finalist when you have several equally qualified tenants.

More to come: The Importance of Having Written Criteria

Popularity: 7% [?]

Tags: landlords, screening criteria, tenants

Free Background Check Manual and Forms 

The background check forms are ready. The background check manual is complete, updated and online. You can access the manual here. All efforts to upload the forms to the site were unsuccessful (and my head is sore from all the wall-banging) so if you’d like a copy of the file, send an email to: cmbrz@conniebrz.com and write Background Check Forms in the subject line.

These puppies are more than fill-in-the-blank forms. Step-by-step instructions are included and by working through the process, you’ll understand more about public records and background checks after one completed screening than most will understand in a lifetime. Even if you chose to outsource, you’ll save by knowing which checks are necessary and which can be skipped altogether.

Just a reminder– these forms are perfect for nonprofit groups and small business owners so if you know a church or synagogue, little league or home repair service that might be interested, just point them to the website and tell them to click the Tenant Screening tab at the top of the homepage.

And with that, my civic duty is complete and the Ghost of Background Check Business Past is laid to rest.

Happy Day

Popularity: 10% [?]

Tags: background, background checks. tenant, screening, tenant screening, tenants

Sections 1-12 are now up.

Click the Tenant Screening tab at the top of the page… more to follow soon

For clarity, a few quick reminders:

This was written back when I ran background checks for fun and profit. My audience at the time were my clientele–small business owners and  nonprofit organizations such as softball leagues, soccer teams, churches, and volunteer fire departments.

Some of this material does *not* apply so much to tenant screening, but I’ve included it anyway on the off-chance that someone other than landlords might wander over and take a peek.

A few of these sections look rather simple… that’s because it *is* simple. Public records are just that— public. It’s knowing which records to check, where to look and what to look out for that’s tricky. Once you have the contact information for your state and county, you can whip these out in no time. There’s a learning curve, but its not that stinkin’ steep.

Tenant Screening/Background checking is something I do not outsource–ever.

Here’s why:

Let’s say someone named Joe Smith applies to rent your lovely little duplex. You go online, pay your $25 for a nationwide criminal records check and it comes back negative. You heave a sigh of relief and sign up your felon.

Do you have any idea which database your online service checked? How often the database is updated? Did someone type in Joe Smith, and scan the thousands of positives? Did they look for aliases? Verify by birthdate? Etc?

We are not the police. We are not the government. We do not have access to the same background and criminal record info plastered all over CSI. Huge databases are notoriously inaccurate– your chances of finding criminal history are much, much higher when you access what *is* available yourself.

A bunch of the material below is explanatory in nature. The forms actually walk you through the process. I haven’t figured out how to post the forms in a readily accessible format. Hopefully, that will happen very soon. If anyone has any ideas, please shoot me an email cmbrz@conniebrz.com or post a comment and I’ll get back to you.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Tags: , background, background check, background checks, nonprofit, nonprofit organizations, screening, small business, tenant, tenant screening, tenants

Free Background Check Manual

Several years ago, I started a background check company, proclaimed myself king and anointed Mr. Brz vice-king. We had a lovely website, lots of lovely traffic, tons of people calling and went broke in record time. Something about giving all the goods away without compensation of a monetary sort probably contributed.

Couldn’t help it though… most calls were from nonprofit groups with zero budget and pitiful sob stories. I gave away background checks right and left and wrote them off with great abandon… until the vice-king informed her highness that the coffers were empty and the website was coming down.

In a final effort to salvage the business, I wrote a background check manual complete with forms, links to state and local internet resources, articles with step by step instructions and all sorts of goodies and offered it for sale as a download. I tried like everything to talk the freeloaders into buying the manual and running their own background checks. Didn’t happen. So down came the website and all the files went in a box somewhere.

The Part Where We Become Landlords

Our adventure with real estate began shortly thereafter and I found that all the information I’d toiled over was imminently practical in the real world of tenant screening. By running our own background checks, we save a bunch and I can customize each screening based on the information found on the credit report and during preliminary calls to ex-landlords and personal references.

Yesterday, while over visiting Rents “R” Us,  a recent post on tenant screening brought to mind that  box of cd’s and files. Considering the sad state of our storage room, honestly there didn’t seem to be much hope, but apparently miracles do happen. So, over the next few days, I’m planning to weed through the files and post anything that might be relevant to tenant screening, including the background check manual.

It may take a bit as I’ve got to find the best way to organize 50+ pages of manual, plus forms and whatnot.

Check back soon if you’re interested.

Quick Update: The background check manual is ready. Click the “Tenant Screening” tab at the top of this page for updates :-)

Popularity: 8% [?]

Tags: background, background check manual, background checks, screening, tenant screening, tenants