AllStar Backgrounds

Tenant Screening Simplified in Central Florida with insights from Carlos Guerra, a private landlord and Managing Member of AllStar Backgrounds based in Bradenton, FL.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Bradenton, Florida, United States of America, July 25, 2011

Intuition. Its a great skill that takes time to develop. Even when you feel your best resource is your own gut instinct; it can never be as on target as a properly conducted comprehensive tenant screen.

You may ask, “Tenant Screening? Why bother?” Well, for starters it not only protects your business but also the residents in the community you manage. Typically a prospective tenant will smile and show a great deal of enthusiasm about moving in announcing, “I’ll take it, When can I move in?”. Now as a property manager we are happy to see this. A seasoned property manager knows to proceed with caution and stick to a pre-determined procedure.

As a local landlord and owner of AllStar Backgrounds I find myself in a unique position to see both sides of the coin in this situation. With variable expenses on repairs and maintenance being the norm, ensuring the right applicant is chosen is essential. First of all as a landlord, I need to stick to my checklist. Lease application fully completed, two forms of ID, last 2 months bank statements, last 30 days’ worth of pay stubs and finally, collection of the application fee which pays for the tenant screen/credit history report.

On the tenant screening side of things, I have seen the many options available in the marketplace. Entering into a lease agreement is equivalent to loaning out several thousand dollars, so it really pays to complete our due diligence. Unfortunately, the many ubiquitous tenant screening options available online can be extremely confusing. We need to understand the basics.

So what should be included in a tenant screen?

We have to build a profile on our prospective tenant. In order to do that we conduct a social security trace/address verification. This provides up-to-date information on an applicant’s full name and/or alternate names used, dates at listed addresses, age/date of birth, and available phone information based on the social security number. As we investigate further, an instant search of criminal records is crucial for obvious reasons. Learn about prison and probation sentences, offense history, etc. After the criminal search is completed, a database search of registered sex offenders is conducted. A Financial Profile is established with a credit history report along with an eviction database check. This will give us an insight into the way our applicant handles financial agreements and responsibilities.

If I could sum up into one sentence what I have learned in the tenant/pre-employment screening industry it would be: “A look into someone’s past is a great predictor of future behavior.” A tenant screen successfully accomplishes that. The peace of mind received is well worth the investment.

About AllStar Backgrounds

Our Vision is to provide communities with a premium, yet affordable tenant and background screening solution. We pride ourselves with offering exceptional service and a variety of exciting products designed to fit your individual business’ needs. With 10 years in the background check industry we have “the know how” to get the job done right. We have created relationships and partnered with the best in the industry to deliver the highest quality, most accurate results available. We are AllStar Backgrounds.

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