i bought a duplex (!)

Now certified to view full credit reports on rental applicants

And I’m happy about that. The thought of renting to people without doing that small bit of due-diligence scares the heck out of me. The whole process was actually very quick, painless, and not all that expensive.

I first called Landlord2Landlord, the agency I’d been using to pull credit reports before they changed the laws, to find out what needed to be done. First, they sent me some paperwork to sign and fax back, stating the address and nature of my business, and authorizing them to charge $75 to my credit card. They then had a third-party inspection party contact me to set up an appointment. In order to make sure that I could pass the inspection, I asked them some questions about what to expect.

The basic requirements:

• A locked door on the office (commercial space or home office)
• A password-protected computer
• The computer should not be facing outward - so clients could accidentally see an on-screen report
• A lockable filing cabinet
• A paper shredder

TransUnion requires that there is a sign on the door, the other two do not. I don’t really have an official name for my rental “company,” so I decided to just skip the sign… two credit agencies are more than enough.

The actual inspection was a piece of cake, and didn’t take more than 15 minutes. The guy showed up, asked for the building owner/manager’s name and phone number, the web address of my rental business, and how many units I manage. He took photos of the locked filing cabinet, password-protected computer, and asked if I had a shredder. He left his card, and was off.

The next day I received an email from Landlord2Landlord saying that I now have access to full credit reports.

Nice! Why was I so worried about this?

Now I just have to get myself some applicants…

Related Articles:

• Checking References
• Tenant Screening (Don't get too excited just yet.)
• My ad is up, I'm getting inquiries. I never realized that there were so many, er, interesting people in the world.

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Entry Filed under: Tenant Screening, Finding renters
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