Tenant Credit Screening is a common practice among landlords looking to rent out their income properties to prospective tenants. Items that can be uncovered under a Tenant Credit Screening includes such derogatory information as late payments, bounced (rubber) checks, and repossessions.
Why would any landlord want to take a risk when it comes to the safety and well-being of their own property? Well, the short answer is most of them don't. They realize that the protection of their property is worth the small amount of money screening costs these days.
When you think about the wealth of information that's on a credit report, it's amazing how much we can find out about someone before we rent to them, to find out if they are a good risk or not. And considering the downside of a bad risk, you simply can't be too careful about who you rent your property to. Everyone wants to find that "dream tenant" who pays their rent on time, takes care of the property, and stays in communication to let you know of any problems. But these sort of tenants are all too rare, which is why you want to give yourself every advantage in finding them.
An Online Credit Check can be thought of as just a smaller insurance policy for a landlord, because if the couple dollars it costs them to run the report shows derogatory information, then they have potentially saved themselves thousands in eviction procedures.