Credit Reports: Do You Know Your Options?

Instant Credit Analysis

Today, tenant credit screening is easy.

In a matter of seconds, you can receive a green light approval on a prospective, a red flag decline, or a warning that you may need to dig deeper with that prospect. 

In most cases, the automated decision is the most efficient way to receive credit screening.  Many prospects sail through with approval, and you avoid having to struggle to interpret obscure credit codes or comb through pages of data to evaluate a tenant for yourself.

Credit reporting has become highly regulated because of frequent abuses and a rise in identity theft.  As a result, to obtain a credit report, a landlord must first be underwritten by a credit reporting bureau. 

AAOA has negotiated for you so members can apply to be underwritten, and obtain credit reports  Once you are approved, you may obtain a prospect’s credit history via the automated instant decision –a red light, green light, or a caution that you need more information from the prospect about their credit.  But some landlords want a closer look.

The Full Monty

To release the full details of a credit report, regulators now require credit bureaus to physically inspect the landlord’s place of business.  The inspector, a contractor approved by the bureau, confirms your identity and reviews your procedures for keeping tenant credit information secure from public disclosure. 

There is a one-time fee of $75 for commercial office sites.  Landlords with home offices must undergo the $75 inspection annually.

  

To set up an inspection, contact AAOA customer service at 866-579-AAOA (2262) 

Click here to learn more about tenant screening, including a list of what types of reports are available for landlords.

American Apartment Owners Association offers discounts on products and services related to your commercial housing investment including REAL ESTATE FORMS, tenant debt collection, tenant background checks, insurance and financing.  Find out more at www.joinaaoa.org.

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Tags: best+tenant+screening, tenant+credit+screening, landlords, landlord+associations, tenant+background+checks, apartment+owners+associations

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Filed under: AAOA Forum, Credit Screening

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 28th, 2008 at 1:46 pm and is filed under AAOA Forum, Credit Screening. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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