The job of a landlord or employer can be exceptionally risky when it comes to strangers. Property damages due to wild parties, showing up an hour late to work, these are characteristic examples of an insufficient tenant/worker. It is important that when making a decision, such as moving in a tenant or hiring, you be as most informed about him/her as possible. You want to ensure that the potential candidate is reliable, responsible, reasonable, and safe. So what is the best way to perform a thorough criminal and public background check?

The intent of a background search is to compile as much relevant information as possible, such as financial, criminal, and public history. This information is valuable to building up your personal profile of a potential candidate. These candidates are not obligated to tell you everything about their personal information, so you must take advantage of the available online resources to extract this information legally. Tenant screening, credit reports, employment references, identity and address verification, are a few factors of background checking.

Tenant screening is used to determine the likelihood of a tenants ability to comply with the terms of a rental agreement. You should use tenant screening services such as LeaserRunner, TenantScreeningReport, Experian, and other trusted service agencies to get accurate results. This service collects personal information, address, employment history, criminal history, and eviction history about the client. The service also provides a report graded by previous landlords based on the tenant’s performance. This gives you the opportunity to see what other landlords think of your potential candidate.

Credit reports are used to reflect the financial credibility of an individual based on late payments and bankruptcy, you can take a good look under the hood when it comes to a candidates ability to comply with payments. A majority of landlords respond to the average and above credit scores within range of 650+. If you are looking for a particular score, be sure to compare to a credit score chart.

Employment references are important when obtaining personal information about an individual, such as their personality and characteristics. Upon interviewing the employee. it would be best suited to have him/her fill out a reference form.You may contact employment references listed to get an understanding of what other people (teachers, previous employers, etc.) think of the individual in question. Is the employee lazy? is he/she honest and professional? All questions pertaining to his/her character and performance may be asked to get a personal background.

Identity and address verification information can be retrieved by the previous services mentioned. It is important that the information is noted before asking for the tenant’s/employee’s physical proof, such as ID card, social security card, birth certificate, or a house bill with the candidate’s address on it. If the identification and address info matches to your noted information, then the individual has proven to be who he/she claimed. Upon retrieving all physical documentation, all documents should be scanned and saved into a file pertaining to the candidate.

You need to look out for your investments, so you need a tenant/employee you can trust. It would be in your best interest to use a background check company to analyze legal credibility. Using a company specializing in criminal background services is very important when it comes to the safety of yourself and others. Save yourself peace of mind by practicing thorough background checks on potential tenants/employees.