Table of Contents
How To Screen Rental Applications in Denver?
Hey everybody! Matthew Whitaker, doing another “Questions Owners Ask.” Today’s question is going to be centered on how to screen rental applications in Denver.
We have five different things we do to screen a tenant.
Number One
Over the last six months, we have internalized our screening process. We partnered with Transunion, a Denver-based company. Their software allows us to screen tenants through our own certain process. We are super excited about this partnership.
Most property managers externally screen them, meaning they subcontract that out to a third party.
We have found that is way too important of a process for us to contract out.
Transunion is known for having a resident score. They have used a whole bunch of data to predict the success of a resident.
We tell Transunion what we are willing to allow in our properties and they give us back what our algorithm or underwriting policy should be with regard to the resident score. This is very similar to a credit score.
Number Two
The next thing we look for is eviction history. Tenants can get evicted for many different reasons, one of the most important reasons we look at it is whether or not they paid rent on time or at all.
You would be surprised how many people have been evicted. Even people that seemed normal have evictions. So, the second thing we look for is eviction history.
Number Three
The third thing we look for is what we call the ability to pay, which means we look at their income.
Sometimes you have to tell people they cannot afford the property because of their income. This is looking out for you and the prospective tenant. It is important to not only have your best interest at heart, but also theirs.
We get check pay stubs and we sometimes have to talk to employers to get what we call the ability to pay.
How much money does that person bring in on a monthly or annual basis?
Number Four
And then the last thing we do is a criminal background check. With this we are looking for a history that could show a possible problem or threat to a house or neighborhood. There are all sorts of rules and regulations when doing this, so it is important to know your limits.
Background checks ensure we are not putting a tenant in a property that may threaten the neighbors, damage the house, etc.
That is all I have for you on how to screen rental applications in Denver. I’m Matthew Whitaker, with evernest in Denver. Thanks so much.
Matthew is the CEO of Evernest. He is a student of the book Good to Great and is passionate about building the best property management company on the planet (and maybe even the universe if Elon Musk will hurry up). You can usually find Matthew at the baseball field with his son, at a dance recital with his daughter, or at his favorite restaurant with his wife, when he’s not in the office. And if you can’t find him in any of those places, it probably means he’s traveling.