Small Landlords Should Conduct Tenant Screening

A recent survey by Liminality found that 21% of small landlords sometimes or never conducted background checks on their prospective tenants. The study also found that only 44% of these landlords conducted sex offender checks. This news is shocking as one bad tenant could put a small single unit owner into financial distress. A small landlord will cut corners in order to maximize the return on investment, however cutting corners by not performing tenant background checks is not a wise decision. Typical thorough tenant checks only cost between $25 and $50 dollars, a small price to pay for a good tenant. It is important for a small landlord to work with a third party tenant screening company for a few reasons. First, they will get the reports needed to make an intelligent leasing decision and second to help stay compliant with laws governing the background screening industry. Along with a credit check, sex offender search, eviction search and criminal history check a landlord needs to stay compliant with relevant laws. Amidst changing laws in the background screening industry a small landlord or property manager doesn’t have the same resources as the larger property managers do to keep current with these laws. For this reason they should partner with a third party tenant screening company to get all the background reports they need as well as get good advice pertaining to the proper use of background reports in the tenant screening process. To learn more about why small landlords and property managers should use a third party tenant screening company and run tenant background checks on prospective tenant’s read recent TenantScreeningUSA.com press release: http://tenantscreeningusa.com/tenant-screening-news/why-small-property-landlords-should-conduct-tenant-screening-and-work-with-3rd-party-screening-companies/