Do you charge an application fee? I've read at least 5 books on becoming a landlord, and many recomend charging one. If you do, how much?

Will drive around this week-end and start calling to compare. (dental work done today, can't talk poperly)

I have on paper that I charge a $45 non-refundable fee per adult to apply.

I waive or lower it under certain circumstances.

My local hospital does criminal background checks on a regular basis. If they work for the hospital and the hospital will release the most recent check to me, I accept it. They send it directly to me on letterhead. If that is the case, I accept their pay stubs as proof of income and show them how to look up their own credit and we go from there. But these are special (collectable!) employees.

University employees are the same, since I know the people in HR and know the U rules. Students sometimes, since I can search the local criminal records online easily and they can provide me with financial aid award letters.

Regular joe off the street who doesn't work for these employers? I have to charge to cover myself. They never argue or if they do, they don't rent from me.

I'm a landlord in Georgia and I charge $30 as the source I use charges $29.95 for a credit and criminal check.

$30 for me since the service I use charges about the same.

I would consider not to deposit the $30 if I know the prospect will not pass the background/credit checks, like if she/he tells me on the application form some issues I don't want to deal with. In that case, I'll just hold it till the applicant calls back. Most of the time they don't and I just leave it like that. No check cashed, no bad feelings from both sides.

$35 per person over 18 yoa. Married couple, same last name $40.

The fee stops some of the dead beats from wasting any more of my time.

YMMV

Bill [TX]

I charge $25, but say that I'll give it back on the first month's rent to whoever passes my checks and moves in.

My application says we charge $45, but in reality like Kathy we don't do it.

Here's how cut-throat it is in our area - a block from some of our apartments, out on the main highway one of the govt subsidized complexes has a sign twirler with a sign that says $199 move-in.

$15 per potential resident age 18 and older. It cost about $10 to pull credit, and the rest of the checking I do on my own with free services / phoning employers and previous land lords. So I make enough for a sixer of cheap beer, which is usually what I need after some of the apps.

Kidding...I actually get good applicants most of the time. First, I do a "free" phone screening before I show the place, then I take about 60 seconds to look over the app when pick it up from the applicant. Often, I can tell them up front whether or not the deal will work based on what they tell me or write on their app. The $15 just confirms what they say (or denies it).

I used to not to credit checks. After now doing them for several years, I would NEVER accept a tenant without first seeing their credit report. Their is so much information potentially that you are not seeing when you don't run a credit report. It's not just a question of whether they have good credit or not.

You can see WHO they are paying and not paying and what is causing the credit to be bad. As you probably know from a landlord's perspective, all creditor's are not as critical as others.

You can see past addresses that you may not see otherwise.

You can see compare recent payment history and judgments to older history and if the credit problems are recent are not.

You can see if social security number even matches the applicant.

You can get a glimpse of lifestyle type payment choices affecting their debt and how much debt they may have which may be otherwise hidden from you and so much more.

There are now so many times that I have extremely thankful and relieved that I ran a credit check on an applicant that I probably would have accepted had I just gone other free information that was available to me.

All I can say folk is I hope the best for those of you continue to play russian roulette with your rentals. But honestly for less than ten bucks (the cost of a credit report), it really does not make sense that you are taking the extra risk of not seeing a credit report before accepting any applicant.

You all know like me, it only takes one wrong selection of a resident and that can cost you thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars. And yet some of you don't think it's worth the ten dollars to run a credit report. Come on.......

When I used to not run a credit report it was because I was naive and simply didn't know better or credit reports was not as easily accessible as they are now.

And because your competition is not doing them is NO excuse. Even if you don't want to charge the applicant, still run the credit report.

I concur completely with Jeffrey.

I want to see if the info on the application matches with the credit report. I want to see what bills they did not pay - especially utilities. I want to see how many charge-off's/write-off's, items in collections, they think they escaped from.

I check my State's judicial-court records on-line just by typing in their names. Discovered more times than I would like to remember of mug shots on the S.O. registry when the guy seemed like the ideal tenant. (Won't allow in my multi-complex where certain tenants always ask about safe & safety issues.)

I seldom check with previous landlords.I take whatever they and applicant says with a grain of salt.

I don't charge an application fee. Charge $20 for "app.processing/cr.ck" fee.

I don't leave the decision to rent on GUT feelings. I'm no longer gullible when tenants paint glowing pics of themselves and say how good a tenant they will be.

Go ahead guys. Don't do the credit checks. Take the advice from many on here who say: EVICT, EVICT, EVICT at the drop of a hat - rent 5 days late = Evict. Maybe your evictions are cheap - but here fees start at $750.00 up front plus lost rent from tenant friendly court system delays as well as all the other expenses that go with a vacant unit.

574-Brad, as I mentioned above, running a credit report gets me FAR MORE information than just looking to see if applicants have good credit or not. Like you, if I had to always wait on someone having "good" credit, I would still be waiting.

However, a credit report gives so much more info that can help you determine if a resident with "marginal or poor" credit is a bigger risk than others. And yes, there are many factors othr than a credit report that provides some info, by why miss out on what the report can provide.

Re-read the post from Jeffrey [VA}.

He said it all.

I'm a new landlord and I can tell you that a credit check saved my hide when I was renting out our house.

I had a couple come in, nice car, dressed well. They talked all about how great the house was, he's handy and won't bother us needing to fix things, etc. I was falling for it! I really liked them. So asked them if I would find anything on the credit check that I need to know upfront. No, they don't have good credit but no current problems - all in the past. OK, I told them I'm not looking for perfect, just need to see that you haven't had recent delinquencies and are currently up to date.

Wow! what a shock to me when I pulled the report. In the last 2 years a truck repo, 90-120 days late on multiple furniture accounts, and they had just taken out a pay day loan a month before. That woke me up fast. Told them a quick NO.

Week later and I have our current tenants apply. told me upfront they had bad score because of old student loan debt and a few old loans but they were current on everything. They had about the same score as the first couple (not great at all) but their story was true and they had been current on everything in the last 2 years. No charge cards or car loans. They have worked out pretty good. Late a few times but always get the $$ + late fee on payday. They take good care of the place too.

$25 app fee. If they answer my verbal questions well (good credit, no evictions, 3x rent in income, etc) I tell them that I will debit the $25 on their first month's rent if what they told me was true. The twenty five bucks isn't important to me, but the barrier to application is, I don't want anybody with a pencil to drop off an app and then have me spend $10 and five days chasing them down to tell them they're approved, only to never get a call back.

I charge $25. I agree with Jeffrey and Lisa. I don't require 'good credit' and I tell them up front that it's not required. This day and age a LOT of people don't have 'good credit'. But, as pointed out, you find out a lot and find out if they're at least being somewhat truthful. I think having them sign on the application that a check will be run is sometimes enough, even if you don't run the check.

Stating that accepted applicants will get the fee refunded off the first month's rent also helps to week out the 'insincere' and 'lookers'. Some RE management/tenant search outfits in my area charge $75! I don't know how they get any applicants!

I have found that an application fee is the single best screening tool out there. I charge $25. Before I charged one, I would run credit report after credit report and most of them would be bad. Everyone would fill out the application. Prospects would tell me their credit was fine and it often was not. After I started charging a fee, most of the reports now come back good and those with something to hide, won't pay the fee. I will accept lower credit but with cossigners on more money up front to mitigate - I explain this up front. Those willing to take those steps, tend to work out. I also run a criminal back ground report - I have often been surprised. I check references as well and make sure that previous addresses/landlords align with the tax records. I have had people fake prior addresses using friends posing as landlords.

I would not accept a tenant's free report. Instead, offer to refund the fee as part of the first month's rent. I have seen people try to fake the free report as well. If they believe they are a strong applicant and they want to live there, they will take that risk. If one of the above is not true, they won't make good tenants.

I have only gotten burned when I short cutt the process or lowered my standards. Another week or month of vacancy would have always been better. Lower rent is also cheaper than a bad tenant.

We all have to remember one thing: TESTERS!!! HUD hires people to go looking for discrepancies, better known as discrimination, in a Landlord's method of application process. If we provide a written list of requiments that is offered to all who inquire about our available property, and all are treated equally,as per written list, we ought not have trouble.

We rent to low end applicants but do require a $25 processing fee per adult and rebate up to $50 on there first months rent. We do credit checks from 2 bureaus through the Mr. Landlord site. This requires an inspection and pictures of our office. I think it is annually but am not sure as my wife handles that and I am not in the office. We do a criminal check first and weed out most.

I tell people up front that if they have any problems disclose them to me and I can tell them if it is a problem so long as they are completely truthful. I also tell them we realize most people have credit problems but if they tell me what they are I will tell them up front if its a problem. Many have medical bills and this is not a problem for us.

We also review all applications with the applicant before taking the processing fee and do weed out many. Credit checks are well worth the money for the information you get. We also check the land records of there past Landlords to see if we are getting the true owner.

Yikes: several remarks are illegal! The LL cannot pick and choose who pays, or who gets checked. If you charge one, you must charge them all.

No fee here. I want apps - tons and tons of apps!

This is 2012. Most people do not have checks and the rest don't carry checks. To require a $XX check with an app instantly turns away many good applicants. My high-income 27 yr old son commented "I haven't written a check since high school!"

(See also: in a minute I'll post about SQUARE.com)

We do the free stuff first, before incurring the expense of a credit report - pay stubs, LL references, drive-by, Google, Facebook, newspaper archives, online court records. Weeds out many in minutes.

(In Indiana, thru our LL assoc, we have access to online court records throughout the state, so we can look for evictions and in-state criminal offenses for free.)

THEN we pull credit on the ones who make it this far.

CRs are valuable and necessary in the LL toolbox. We use them and recommend them. The more you know, the better decisions. Knowledge is power and profit.

BUT...use the info wisely. The CR is just one more of many PEEKS into their activities. It is not the entire picture. Use it in combination with the other tools available.

Know that many evictions do not make it to the the CR, and the CR info can be 90 days old. A CR free of evictions does NOT mean they were never evicted. It simply means no one reported it, or the CR agency deemed it too small, or the LL did not follow the court process all the way to a judgment, like when they skip or LL decides the T is not worth pursuing.

The addresses are only what other creditors have reported.

FreeCreditReport.com is a rip off and not free.

Free tip: make certain your app form says "can check credit and references AT ANY TIME".

Helps finding them later!

Challenge: pull CRs (with proper written permission on your app) and learn more about your existing tenants. Could be in for a surprise!