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June 2008 Issue
RentGrow "In the Know"
Maximizing Your Resident Screening Returns
Selecting the best applicants is one of the most important aspects of multi-family property operations – and resident screening is an essential part of that process. We’ve got a few suggestions for improving your screening procedures and the bottom-line performance of your properties:
Examine Your Criteria
You’ve probably set acceptable thresholds for credit risk, income, renting history and other factors—criteria that can be automatically applied in your screening process. But how does your current screening model compare with performance? Most screening systems allow you to compare your model to real data on favorable and problematic renter performance regarding debt, skips and other issues. By analyzing the performance of your current criteria, you can make adjustments that could increase your rental revenue while lowering leasing costs.
- Contact your Resident Screening provider for best practices or to find out what other companies in your market – or similar markets – are currently doing.
- Conduct a review of your applicant acceptance and rejection rates relative to occupancy and revenue goals.
- Your screening partner may also be able to provide an analysis of applicants’ profiles who are contributing to your bad debt.
Apply Centralized Control
In the case of one regional company with more than 70 conventional and affordable communities, a spike in debt occurred when a handful of sites were either failing to screen applicants or were overriding the screening’s "reject" recommendations. RentGrow’s analysis helped centralize control and improve compliance at these locations. In addition to real-time monitoring and better visibility, centralization of the resident screening process facilitates compliance across all offices.
Go Beyond Credit Reports
For years, credit information was the main and often only screening criteria available. Now, growing inter- and intra-state databases supplement credit screening with eviction, criminal and even address history. is now compiled into multi-state records that produce results in just seconds. is now available quickly and inexpensively with a more objective assessment of rental behavior. is the newest addition and now provides a more thorough way to verify an applicant’s true past address history – confirming that they have been truthful on their application. Read this RentGrow newsletter, where we talk about criminal data in more depth, or contact your account manager for more information.
The most important thing to keep in mind is that resident screening is a powerful tool that gives property owners important insights into their daily operations, business procedures and marketing programs. With the right criteria, data, and processes in place, you can see great returns from your resident screening practices.
Learn more about how RentGrow can help you examine your criteria and get the best results from your resident screening strategy by emailing us today.
© 2008, RentGrow, Inc., Resident Screening Experts. For permission to reprint this article or to sign up to receive "In The Know," send an email to newsletter@rentgrow.com.
If you have additional questions about criminal screening policies or any other aspects of your resident screening strategy you can contact RentGrow at www.rentgrow.com,
1-800-RENTGROW (1-800-736-8476). | 
