They just add it as a processing fee or setup fee. Simply create an account and use SmartMove only as often as you need to. At the bottom of the page, click on Add Renter. Since the rental applicant initiates the release of his or her own data, the resulting inquiry is considered a soft inquiry, which does not impact his or her credit score. Why would a state do this? To keep the process secure, SmartMove is an online service. If any difficulty transpires with this process, contact SmartMove for further assistance. SmartMove is TransUnion's tenant screening service for property owners who aren't property management professionals. Apartment Rental Credit Check FAQ - Tenant Screening I believe between those two services that the TransUnion Full Credit Report is the superior product. If you visit this website from another browser or device and wish to opt out, you'll need to select the cookie settings again. The cost of a credit report is just $24.95, while criminal background checks and eviction history reports cost $19.95 each. You may dispute items within your credit report that are used as inputs by the model. When you order the report, also known as SmartMove, the sequence of events looks like this: This oversimplifies the TransUnion Full Credit Report ordering process, but I want to address the gap between Step 2 and Step 3. Instead, potential renters can log in to MySmartMove.com for a one-time fee of $24.95 and grant access to the landlords to review their credit history . While the purchaser may see multiple pending listings in the account, only one charge will be deducted after the authorization is completed. Please check Spam folders or Junk Email folders to make sure that the email has not been filtered out. An estimate of whether or not the applicants credit behavior aligns with their self-reported income. If the rental applicant has not yet received an email from SmartMove prompting him or her to create an account and/or to grant consent to the screening, he or she can still do so by going directly to the SmartMove site and clicking on any of the Create an Account buttons and creating a renter account (if the renter does not already have a SmartMove account). For renters who are unsure what address the landlord used, we recommend contacting him or her for confirmation. According to TransUnions analysis of nearly 200 properties, evicted residents have nearly three times as many prior eviction and rental-related collection records as non-evicted residents. You can avoid worrying about potential damage and neighbor issues by checking the criminal section provided in the SmartMove report, although this is not available in the five states mentioned above. Weve also included the transcriptions of podcasts on our blog. It essentially lets you know whether you should do further income verification for your applicant. Its very easy to obtain a credit report and a criminal Background investigation, eviction notice etc. SmartMove is a consumer-initiated service, meaning the consumer (renter) plays an active role in deciding when and to whom to release sensitive personal information. 4 What does SmartMove check for? Our tenant screening services have been trusted by over 90,000 landlords & property managers since 2007. The process is conducted online, keeping this information secure. Some landlords (including Brandon Turner of BiggerPockets) love this option. Even before you click through to see the standard reports, youll see both the ResidentScore (which they say is 15% more accurate than a credit score at predicting evictions) and then a quick income-to-rent number (the 3.8x number in the screenshot above). While large properties can have the resources to absorb the cost of an eviction, this is often not the case for independent landlords who have 1-3 units. Dear Disgusted, SmartMove searches millions of criminal records and promises results within minutes. It can only be used to determine whether or not the landlord requires additional proof of income. Nobody wants to spend the time, money and energy that goes into renting a property only to have to spend more time, money and energy on evicting a tenant before their lease is up. TransUnion Reviews: 2,275 User Ratings | ConsumerAffairs Why should a renter have to pay for something that the Agent/Owner wants it doesnt make sense It would be like me telling the Agent/Owner that he has to pay me to rent his home because Im a great renter, Im never late on my payments, I dont have any criminal background etc. Protect sensitive information like your SSN. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. My name is Stephen White, Im the Founder of RentPrep a nationwide tenant screening service since 2007. TransUnion SmartMove is the clear choice for helping you make the right decisions for your rental property. TransUnion SmartMove is an easy, reliable online tenant screening solution designed to give independent landlords the results they want -- and renters the security they need. However, their lack of criminal information for 8 different locations can lead to some holes in that data. The purchasers bank may take up to seven business days to reflect the refund in the online summary of the credit card. TransUnion is a well-regarded company, and the SmartMove Report is well respected in the Real Estate Industry. First, lets address the criminal data not offered in 5 States. To ensure future emails continue to reach the Inbox, please add the email address [emailprotected] to an address book or safe sender list. You wont be priced out of effective tenant screening with expensive tenant screening software. Once you begin digging into their reports, youll find that they are visually appealing and easy to read (information is redacted in much of these because of the need to put in real information to get a real tenant screening report back). On the flip side of this.. applicants do lie. As you use this website, we and our third-party providers collect your internet and other electronic network activity information (IP address, device information, and information regarding your interaction with this website) via cookies and other technologies. This is because the applicant has already authorized all their information to be pulled. Ive often said that once a person goes through an eviction, theyre more likely to go through another. Because SmartMove prompts you to initiate the request yourself, the credit check is considered a soft hit on your credit historyand doesnt impact your credit in any way. This means that you have to find an applicant first, and then send them the application. Well forward your issue to the company, give you a tracking number, and keep you updated on the status of your complaint. Or visit SmartMove here to learn more now. to 7 p.m. Eastern Time or . If this is you, we recommend sticking with a TransUnion Full Credit Report. Were committed to helping you make smarter business decisions. There are 3 tiers to choose from: SmartCheck Basic, SmartCheckPlus and SmartCheck Premium. In order to begin the process, the potential renter MUST provide an email address to the landlord. To set up the TransUnion SmartMove screening process, all you have to do is supply the tenants' email address, and they are then sent the screening request, which they must accept to start the process. Before we begin, lets briefly examine how the product has evolved. We use multiple databases on RentPrep Background Checks (3 to be exact) because every day we find a criminal record that is recorded in one database and not the other. And the option of who pays for the service, applicant or landlord, is another feature unique to SmartMove that streamlines the screening process. Some landlords could care less about tenant involvement because they see it as a warning sign if the tenant cannot complete the report promptly. If your tenant applicant fills out the necessary details minutes after getting their email, youll receive a completed report within 10-15 minutes of placing the order. I wouldnt want to look at a tenant applicant in a negative light because of an estimate that underreports their income. By utilizing SmartMoves tenant screening services, renters can grant potential landlords access to personal information knowing that only the landlord whos been granted permission may access their report. Thats why Transunion Created SmartMove. In the initial TransUnion SmartMove screening questions the prospective renter is asked about their level of income, the report verifies this information with a tool called Income Insights, which takes the credit check information and estimates a salary range. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. This opt out only applies to information collected and shared through cookies, trackers and other technology when browsing this website. SmartMove does it all for you online, so you keep your costs low, get the critical information that you need and streamline the tenant vetting process. At first glance this may seem like a negative, but its really not. At a population of about 336 million, you can figure about 19.7 to 23 million Americans who have had a judgment or tax lien removed from their credit report due to the National Consumer Assistance Plan. It will not impact or damage your credit score. Im sure to point out that when screening tenants there are many tools of the trade and to be sure you know what you want so you know where to get it. Most automated services do not do this; this search requires a human screener. One of the strong positives of SmartMove report is that it is accessible for review online at any time, and is processed in mere minutes. Income Insights can help you save time and effort manually verifying applicant income. With SmartMove, however, the renter provides his or her information directly to TransUnion in a secure, online environment. SmartMove boasts a suite of useful tools and features only available on their platform. This is a fair question. FICO ran a study on 10 million credit files and found that about 6 to 7 percent of their 10 million files had a judgment or tax lien removed from their file. Next, SmartMove has each applicant create an account, complete with security questions. No. I have a loan for a car on my reports that I never made and never knew about. A second eviction is like going through a haunted house the second time, its far less scary. This ensures the service remains secure. TransUnion checks over 370 million criminal records, as well as a variety of databases, such as the Most Wanted, and the National Sex Offender Public Registry, and collates the information into an easily understandable report. Sample Reports:SmartCheck Basic ($24.99), SmartCheck Plus ($39.99), SmartCheck Premium ($41.99). As mentioned earlier we can offer the Judgment/Lien search, but we also provide more than that. Last Updated: No parties are charged if the application is cancelled by either party prior to the screening taking place. The report also shares which applicants actually need additional income verification, lowering your risk of renter payment problems and saving you the wasted time of asking for unnecessary information from those who already pass SmartMoves stringent standards. What we found was outrageous! While TransUnion has a solid reputation online for being a respectable credit reporting company, its SmartMove service has a limited number of reviews online. Unlike other renter screening services, the consumer is the one who actually initiates the release of his or her credit and criminal data with SmartMove. (This is similar to the process involved when a consumer applies for a loan or a credit card.). We use this personal information to enhance user experience, analyze performance and traffic on our website, and to provide targeted advertising. Authorizations are the initial communication between SmartMoves billing system and the banks billing system. Signing up for an account is always free. ResidentScore is designed specifically for tenant screening by TransUnion. There is just to much identity theft happening today. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. Its a free bonus we offer to RentPrep clients. Income insights, only available on the SmartMove platform, gives landlords a quick way to determine if they should dig deeper into their applicants income levels. Unfortunately, rent payments are not typically reported so there is no juicy data to share. Small property management operations and alike using SmartMove benefit from years of expertise and thoroughly-researched methods of tenant applicant analysis. The report also shows the details of the court case that preceded the eviction and any other worrisome behavior such as whether there is a previous history of Unlawful Detainers, Tenant Judgments for Rent, and Criminal Behavior. TransUnion Rental Screening Solutions Inc. 555 W. Adams St., Chicago, Illinois 62249. Whether you choose to accept pets or impose other conditions on renters, always bear in mind the Fair Housing Act, then you can use your criteria as your first level of sorting. A recommendation of whether or not to request additional proof of income from an applicant, such as a recent pay stub. Your email address will not be published. If there is more than one renter on an application, each renter must have a separate email address. Your IP: You dont have to give your information to a potential landlord youve never met, instead you can provide the necessary information through TransUnion, safely and securely online. What happened to a signed Lease, a handshake, a persons word??? A mortgage lender will not lend to someone who is 5.5 times more likely to go into pre-foreclosure or foreclosure. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. Do you really want to submit sensitive info like your Social Security number to each landlord you interact with? Heres how SmartMoves process works for creating the application, the applicants process, the landlords process, and what the reports look like. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. Thats because it looks at their credit history and average expenditures and compares that against their algorithm. An accurate, reliable tenant report is the best resource to identify the right tenants. We see many cases where an eviction is filed and appears on a judgment search, but not an eviction search. We have been notified that the TransUnion SmartMove logo, name, and branding has been used fraudulently by a third party in an unauthorized attempt to collect money or personal information outside of our website. After all, we offer the product and find it the best of the instant credit report options on the market. Is SmartMove safe? SmartMove is a complete tenant screening service that includes nationwide criminal checks, credit reports, eviction histories, and income insights, among others. 2023 SmartMove by TransUnion Review Benzinga you are not required to purchase your credit report from the site or smartmove in order to dispute inaccurate or incomplete information in your report or to receive a copy of your report from equifax, experian or transunion, the three national credit reporting agencies, or from any other credit reporting agency. If you remove or clear all your cookies on the browser you're using, you will need to opt out again when you return to the site. It was designed to help smaller landlords make educated leasing decisions by giving them access to the same tools for renter screenings that larger property management companies use. If you have a more specific inquiry or a more complicated issue, fill out a request for support. SmartMove is used when someone is interested in applying to rent a property. And SmartMove enables you to screen effectively without compromising the privacy or security of the applicants personal identifying information.