Renter History

Renter History is not just comprised of credit history or criminal background history, it can also be previous address history information as well. For many years, the only thing a landlord had to go on was a credit check but technology has brought much more to their fingertips.

In the past, a landlord had to check the Renter History addresses by calling their previous landlords. This was often unreliable, since prospective tenants can give their friend's phone numbers as references. Now there is PALS (Prior Address Locator Service), which can confirm previous addresses.

It's so much easier these days. Given just an applicant's social security number, you can pull a history of where they lived in the past. Not only does this let you check if they're giving you the real story on where they have lived in the past, but it allows you to check the list against their eviction history to see if your applicant has a bad history of getting evicted from their prior households. And chances are, if they keep getting evicted from rental after rental, they will probably continue the pattern with your property. And then you're faced with a long, expensive legal battle that might end with them moving out -- but also might end with them trashing your property. You really can't be too careful with your background checking.

Be very meticulous when reviewing your tenant's Background Check and you will minimize your risk of loss of income due to a bum tenant.

Verify Renter History here.