You Should Do a Background Check on Your Prospective Landlord (and Yourself)
The search for housing is becoming increasingly stressful. Not only are rents rising ( the average rent in the United States is now almost $2,000 per month ), but renting a home can be an extremely difficult process . There’s an application (and an application fee) to prove your income, provide references, and endure all sorts of checks and intrusive questions, with zero guarantee that you’ll actually have a place to live in the end.
The stress of having a roof over your head causes most people to forget one simple fact: you also need to vet your potential landlord. For example, knowing that your landlord regularly ranks among the worst landlords in your city is key information that can help you make that important financial decision. But even if your potential landlord isn’t that bad, you should check their background so you know what you’re dealing with. And while you’re at it, you should check in with yourself to make sure they’re seeing accurate information when deciding whether you’re worth the risk on rent.
check yourself
Forewarned is forearmed, so your first task when looking for a home to rent is to figure out what potential homeowners see in you . The last thing you want is to find the perfect place to rent only to be turned down for mysterious reasons. And just like credit reports, your rental history report may contain inaccuracies that could affect your ability to appeal a rental application, so checking them should be your first order of business.
Landlords use a variety of companies for this service, including major credit reporting companies TransUnion ( SmartMove ), Equifax ( TotalVerify ) and Experian . Other companies that provide rental history reports include RentPrep , First Advantage , Verifirst , and E-Renter . All of these companies charge a fee to provide the reports, but the good news is that under the same law that gives you access to your own credit report every year for free, the Fair Credit Reporting Act , you can request a free copy of your credit report. rental history report. Since you’ll have to contact each company individually to request one, your best strategy is to ask any potential landlord what company they use to screen tenants, and then request your report from there (it’s also a good idea to get free copies of your credit reports while you’re at it ).
If you find any errors in your rental history report, you can file a dispute and have the report corrected, just as you would with a credit report. This may take some time, so it is recommended to do this at a time when you know you will be looking for a rental property.
Check your landlord
Once you know you have a clean rental history and shouldn’t have any problems getting your application processed (or at least you know what a landlord’s concerns might be so you can prepare for the case), it’s time to make sure that you’re not going to sign a contract with a slumlord.
Unfortunately, there is no simple paid landlord verification service (that would be too easy), so you will have to gather information from several sources:
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Internet search. The first and easiest thing to do is to enter the address of the property and the name of the landlord (or the name of the management company) into Google. This will provide any publicly available information about how the landlord is running things. Next, visit review sites where people can leave reviews of landlords and buildings, such as Rate My Landlord or WYL . These sites can give you a snapshot of what tenants are facing at the property you’re considering.
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Public records. No matter where you live, there are property records that can tell you a lot about how a homeowner operates. Depending on where you live, some of this information may be available online and easy to find (for example, in New York City, you can find real estate in the Automated City Register Information System [ACRIS] ) or you may have to go to your local courthouse to dig through the records. But the effort is worth it because these records will tell you about code violations, the number of evictions, lawsuits filed against the landlord or property management company, and foreclosure procedures. If you find a lot of this data, you should consider whether you should trust this landlord with your living arrangements.
Many municipalities also maintain “worst landlords” lists (again, New York City has one, of course ), which can be a quick and easy way to find out if you’re about to rent from some real estate demon.
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Ask the neighbors. People who already live in a prospective building are your best source of information about the current state of affairs there. You can probably learn more from one or two conversations with people already living there than you can from a few days of research.
Your tolerance for landlord red flags will, of course, be directly proportional to your desperation in finding a home, but knowledge is power. If you find a lot of complaints, lawsuits and financial fraud related to your future apartment, it may be better to continue your search.