Finding the right tenant is virtually effortless with a thorough tenant screening service. With SingleKey, landlords will receive fast and comprehensive results on all prospective tenants, including background checks, credit history, social media scans, income confirmation, and more.
Learn how a tenant screening service like SingleKey can unveil a detailed report that extracts background information and valuable insights into potential renters. Whether you have various rental listings or plan on renting out one property, a good screening service can streamline and optimize the application process.
What is tenant screening?
Tenant screening services help landlords make informed decisions when sifting through rental applications. They provide valuable insights into each rental applicant and reveal their reliability as a tenant according to their financial standing and rental history.
Becoming a landlord may sound like a straightforward business opportunity. While some aspiring investors imagine people clamouring to their rental property, ready with payment and an immaculate record, it takes a comprehensive analysis of each application to find a quality lessee.
A troublesome tenant can cause landlords grief and money, requiring them to invest more time than they initially expected to spend on a rental property. That’s why a tenant screening company can provide landlords with a better sense of an applicant’s background, including:
- Credit history
- Eviction record
- Income verification and income insights
- Criminal background report
Learn how a comprehensive tenant screening service, like SingleKey, professionally screens tenants and provides a trusted source of information for landlords. This guide shares how SingleKey simplifies the screening process for an optimal landlord-tenant experience.
What are the features of SingleKey’s tenant screening services?
Think of tenant screening as a puzzle. A clear and broad picture of the tenant emerges with each piece of data. With SingleKey’s Tenant Report, landlords will have access to the following details:
- Personal identification
- Credit check
- Background check
- Social media scan
- Court record search
- Income and employment verification
Check out SingleKey’s sample report for an intuitive, fool-proof record to help curate a top-notch candidate list. In it, property managers will find SingleKey’s scoring charts divided into four integral categories that include:
- Equifax credit score
- Rent to income
- Monthly debt payments
- SingleKey score (a summary based on the previous groups)
In addition to the rental screening score, the report will examine other relevant details about the potential tenant, including whether they have a pet, are a smoker, have filed for bankruptcy, or have been convicted of a felony. If the prospective renter checks any boxes perceived as unfavourable, the report digs deeper into criminal background checks, with short descriptions of each type of charge under their criminal history.
What are the benefits of using SingleKey for tenant screening?
SingleKey simplifies the screening process by ensuring fairness and reducing the landlord’s risk. Lessors can expect an extensive, all-in-one screening package of data-driven results. Using SingleKey’s tenant screening service is far easier than property managers sourcing and collecting the information independently.
There are two ways to order a credit and background check through SingleKey. First, if the landlord has an applicant’s consent, they can opt to input the prospective tenant’s information. This method usually provides results in under five minutes. The landlord pays for the application fee and screening costs using this method.
The second way for a landlord to order a Tenant Report is by inviting the tenant to complete the digital form themselves. The landlord can choose whether the prospective tenant will pay or if the landlord will cover the cost of the screening fee. The information will be available when the tenant completes the online application. Potential renters will upload personal identification documents, proof of income, employment history, pet photos, and other pertinent details, like consent for pulling background checks.
Both methods provide the following screening report facts on potential tenants:
- Detailed credit reports and background checks, including eviction history, eviction reports, and criminal reports
- Complimentary report review call
- Rental income protection when you upgrade to the Rent Guarantee program
- A downloadable rental application
Pre-screening and screening applicants will improve the tenant selection process
By incorporating a customizable pre-screening form into the rental process, property managers can quickly remove any applicants whose finances, personal habits, and desired lease terms don’t align with their expectations.
Take the guesswork out of a tenant-landlord renting endeavour in three easy steps with SingleKey:
- Uncover potential risks and red flags: Choose a safe tenant with a comprehensive tenant screening service.
- Get on-time payments: With optional automated monthly deposits, tenants are incentivized to make on-time payments because their rent payments are reported to a credit bureau.
- Guarantee your income: You’ll have a financial safety net and damage protection if a tenant defaults on their rent.
Explore more of the benefits of using SingleKey to screen tenants.
FAQ: Reports for landlords, the application process, and credit inquiries
A tenant screening service digs deep into a prospective renter’s past, uncovering anything from credit history, employment status, salary verification, previous address, criminal records, eviction notices, and more. This helps landlords discover if an applicant is financially stable, reliable, and trustworthy before their rental application is approved.
A background check is included in the tenant screening service, using a major credit bureau to run a report that shows a record of past behaviour, including financial credit history. The three major credit bureaus include:
- TransUnion
- Equifax
- Experian
Of these three credit reporting agencies, SingleKey uses Equifax to run credit checks.
To find the best tenants, landlords will typically use a screening process that includes the following steps:
- Pre-screen tenants ensuring income and lease expectations align.
- Ask for previous address history.
- Ask for previous landlord information to obtain rental history reports and payment history, especially late payments or unpaid rent.
- Contact credit reporting agencies for the tenant’s credit history.
- Obtain their email address and a copy of a government-issued ID.
- Request written consent to pull background check reports for criminal records.
- Employ property management companies.
- Accept or reject the renter application.
Running a credit check on a prospective tenant costs between $15 to $40. Anyone who has the task of approving applications should understand how to read credit reports. Lines of credit can appear on credit reports, and sometimes the credit can fluctuate.
The rental application process goes beyond checking credit. Other details to consider are eviction history reports, civil judgments, criminal history, and excessive late payments or unpaid rent.
A good option for landlords, if they need help with interpreting reports, is to source a reliable tenant screening provider that can also offer comprehensive services, such as an affordable screening package, screening reviews, rent collection, and rent guarantee.
Our final thoughts
SingleKey offers landlords vital features, including near-instant reports and additional tools for online rent payments, with a user-friendly website to ensure a successful tenant-landlord relationship.
By providing property owners and managers with credit history pulled from a trusted credit reporting bureau, income verification, background search reports, criminal background reports, and a record of any previous evictions or late payments, they can deduce whether they want to consider an applicant as a potential renter. Find out more about how a SingleKey Tenant Report can help you efficiently select your next tenant.
