Renting out your property can be a huge resource for you: you can start putting that empty place to some use and create a passive source of income.
However, renting out properties doesn’t come free of any disadvantage.
That passive source of income is 100% certain only if your tenant is honest and timely with their payments. But how can you make sure that?
Tenant background checkers are tools that can help you with that! In this article, we are going to find out anything about them.
Plus, we also want to provide you with a list of the 10 Best Tenant Background Check tools now available.
What Are Tenant Background Check tools?
Tenant Background checkers are services that you can access online whenever you need to check the history and reliability of a tenant.
These services can let you know a lot of data: your tenant’s past addresses, their rental history, whether they have ever been late with their payments, whether they were persistently late with them, or if they have never received notices of eviction.
In practical terms, a Tenant Background Checker alerts you with red flags or similar whenever there is a chance that your tenant is not completely reliable.
With Tenant Background Check services, you can save a lot of time in any phase: when you are selecting potential tenants, and in the future.
Basically, with these services, you can boost your chance of having “the perfect tenant”: someone who is always on time with their rent.
Someone who is respectful of your property, and who is likely to respect any point of your contract and agreements.
How to select the best Tenant Background Check service?
There are many Tenant Background Check services available online. The quality of the service you rely on will affect the reliability of the results provided.
In other terms, you need to be able to thrust your Tenant Background Check service and the data it provides. So, how do you choose your Tenant Background Check?
Experience
Among all the services available, you should prefer the ones with the longest history.
The longer their history and experience, the more data they’ve been able to collect during the years and, therefore, the more reliable the outcome on your potential tenant or tenants can be.
Number of parameters checked
Tenant Background Check services are based on different parameters to provide an outcome for your potential tenant.
These parameters can be different, and they can be more or less numerous.
Make sure the service you choose can check for any eviction or bankruptcies.
Some services also screen through criminal records: knowing your tenant’s possible criminal history is always useful to understand whether or not they are reliable and honest.
Number of services provided
Some Tenant Background Check services can provide additional services.
Other than providing information about your tenant, for example, they can take care of the entire renting process, including the payment process and management.
Reports
When Tenant Background Check services provide you with tenants’ data and information they usually prepare and send you a report.
In the report, you not only are given an opinion on the tenant’s reliability but also all the specific information that has led to that opinion.
Based on that information, your final opinion could be different than the one proposed by the service.
For example, you could decide to give someone who has spent a year in jail a chance to build his or her life back.
So, avoid services that only provide a yes or no answer to your query.
Read: 10 Best Free Background Check Websites – Trusted Reviews
10 Best Tenant Background Check Services
1. Rentberry
Cost:
$19.99 charged to the applicants
Read: Rentberry Review
Pros & Cons
Pros
- All relevant information included
- The very small fee paid by the applicant
- The platform also manages applications
Cons
- Not the most reports provided
Features
It provides a report that includes:
- Credit report
- civil and driving records
- Criminal history
It isn’t the most detailed report, but it’s certainly the cheapest and it includes all the most relevant information.
2. Apartments
Cost:
$29, charged to applicants (potential tenants)
Apartments Review
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Background check fee is included in the application fee
- The application fee is paid by the applicants
- You can use the platform to manage all aspects of your tenants’ research
Cons
- The Application fee could discourage some applicants
Features
This isn’t only a background checker, it is a platform that can help you manage your property rents and tenant research.
In particular, tenants can apply on the platform, and it will run a background check for you (included in the price). They check:
- transunion credit report
- payment history
- eviction history.
3. US Search
Cost:
$2.95 per person
Read: US Search Review
Pros & Cons
Pros
- The cheapest service available
Cons
- It isn’t specialized in a background check
Features
This is a platform that was born to help people find each other, but you can also use it to run a background check on your tenant.
The greatest feature is that if you need a report for 1 person only you can pay $2.95. You won’t find a cheaper price than this!
Reports include:
- COntact details
- criminal records
- personal address
- birth records
- marriage and divorce status
- reverse phone and address lookup
4. Instant Checkmate
Cost:
$35 per month
Read: Instant Checkmate Review
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Public records are public and every citizen has the right to access them. You aren’t violating anyone’s privacy by running these checks
Cons
- It doesn’t provide an advanced check but it limited to gather information from public records
- It’s expensive
Features
This company checks all public records available about an individual. Because of this, reports about your applicants or tenant will include:
- criminal records
- court records
- marriage and divorce record
- and more
5. Checkr
Cost:
$29 per application
Read: Checkr Review
Pros & Cons
Pros
- You can ask for several background checks at once
- Detailed and easy-to-read reports
- Time-saving
Cons
- The result may take longer than other services
Features
This is one of the most user-friendly platforms in this sector. You can receive check several applicants at once and receive a report for each of them.
The reports will include:
- Criminal recors on a national, county, and federal level
- reference verification
- employment verification
- education verification
- Civil records
- Address history
- Social security number trace
6. First Advantage
Cost:
From $20 to $105 per month (depending on the amount of information and data you request)
Read: First Advantage Review
Pros & Cons
Pros
- They can do deep research on individuals
- You can customize your research so that you can save some money
Cons
- It can become very expensive
Features
First Advantage can access the following information about your tenant or applicants:
- Name and address verification
- Education verification
- Social Media research
- Fraud Alerts
- Social security number and date of birth verification
- Criminal records
- Search for adverse media
As you can see, First Advantage can provide detailed research on your applicants.
If you want to know it all, you’ll need to pay the most expensive fee. If you only need superficial verification, you can save a lot of money.
7. Intelius
Cost:
$29.63 per month
Read: Intelius Review
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Detailed reports
- Access to tons of information
- ideal if you need to check many applicants
Cons
- You need to pay a monthly subscription which is not ideal if you only need to run 1 check over your tenant
Features
This company has access to tons of data. Therefore, their reports are very detailed and they include:
- credit reports
- education history
- social media accounts
- birth records
- reverse phone lookup
- court, arrest, and criminal reports
- marriage and divorce history
8. TruthFinder
Cost:
From $20 per month
Read: TruthFinder Review
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Experiences service provider
- Easy to use
- Extremely detailed reports
Cons
- You need to subscribe to a monthly service (you can run your checks and then unsubscribe)
Features
TruthFinder has a high reputation and experience. It’s also extremely easy to use because all you need to do is to insert a person’s name, city, and State to perform a background check. The report you’ll get will include:
- past offender status
- credit report
- marriage and divorce records
- public records (included crime and court records)
- Dark web scan
9. Spokeo
Cost:
$19.95 per month
Read: Spokeo Review
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Easy to use service
- One of the cheapest services available
Cons
- It doesn’t provide deeply detailed reports
Features
If you are searching for a decent and easy-to-use check service at a reasonable price, Spokeo is the one for you. Their reports include:
- background search
- reverse email, phone lookup
- social media search
- criminal records
10. GoodHire
Cost:
From $29.99 to $79.99
Read: GoodHire Review
Pros & Cons
Pros
- One of the most detailed background checks available
Cons
- One of the most expensive services in this sector
Features
It provides the following information about tenants or applicants:
- criminal record,
- credit history
- education history
- job verification
- federal, state, and worldwide court records
- professional licensing verification
- reference checks
If you don’t need all this data, but fewer, you can pay a smaller fee.
Conclusion
Tenant Background Check services are a great resource for you as a property owner.
With a small fee, you can make sure you’ll receive your payments and avoid a lot of trouble in the future.
FAQ
How do Tenant Background Check services collect data?
When you sign up for a rental contract, you should always check for the presence of any sentence like this: “I allow you to collect data for tenant background”, or similar.
If you sign up for a contract like this, you are also giving your consent to the collection of your data and that information will end up in your “background”.
Having information ending up in your tenant background isn’t always bad.
If you are a good tenant, having that information available will make it easier for you to rent your next apartment or property.
Can I reject a tenant based on their background check?
If you run your background check before you sign up for any contract, you can reject a tenant that you don’t trust.
However, you must not discriminate against anybody and you always have to have a reasonable reason to reject a tenant.
If you don’t want to incur in any problem, write down a written rental application.
This way, when you reject a tenant, you can write why you rejected a tenant and preferred another one.
In the case of a lawsuit, you have written documents that prove that you didn’t reject a person on a discriminatory basis, but for reasonable reasons.
Is tenant background check legal?
It is if tenants have provided consent to use their data. You can’t collect or share any data about your tenants if they have not given explicit consent (with a signature on a document).
Also, ask your tenants to fill out a rental application where they provide their personal data, and references, with their consent to contact those references.
This way you are allowed to check whatever information they provide.
Amit is a young entrepreneur who specializes in background checks. After completing his high school certification, Amit spent half a decade trying different background check services. He has worked for several background screening firms and gained valuable industry experience.
Amit is the founder of BestBackgroundCheckSite.com, where he helps all its users navigate complicated decisions about their personal lives and careers.