What is the most cost-effective method to run criminal and credit history for a potential tennant.

Question

I'm a new landlord looking for reliable tenants to live in rental property. I don't want to hire someone to run background and credit checks for me if I can do it myself. Can I call the credit companies or go to county police dept. to get my own checks while spending a minimum amount of money? Or is it best to hire a company to do this? If so which ones do you recommend. But if can do it myself with a little bit of legwork and come out cheaper I'll take that option.

Answer 1

I use clearscreening.com

You can do all this stuff yourself.  You can check your county's website for courtcases, then check police station for criminal stuff.  You can't check credit by calling the credit company, you'll have to pay for that.

The problem with this is if you check your county's site, then what if they committed a crime in another county, or another state.

Don't go cheap on this part.  This is too important to worry about $40-$50.  This is exactly what bad tenants look for.  They want someone that will not check credit, background, or references.  

You'd be surprised how many people I get that will pay my application fee and flat-out lie on the application.  They are hoping I will not check credit/references.  They may lose $50 app fee, but if I take them, they may end up living for free off me for a month or two(if they are sneaky).  That's worth $2000 + damages!

Answer 2

I use Claerscreening.com as well. Great service, no annual or set up fees.