When considering applicants for renting your property, there are plenty of big questions running through your mind. Is this the right tenant for me? Will they pay rent on time? Do I need to worry about safety? This is where TransUnion SmartMove comes to play. As a landlord, you can run an online credit check, eviction history and criminal background check in mere minutes. It’s an easy and reliable way to screen potential tenants. Let’s dive deeper into SmartMove below.
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SmartMove Features
SmartMove is a great way to screen your potential tenants. The comprehensive report covers the following:
- TransUnion ResidentScore, which translates the applicant’s credit history and a sophisticated analysis of more than 500,000 resident records into rental payment performance. SmartMove will generate a leasing recommendation based on the ResidentScore.
- Criminal report, to help you avoid problem renters. It combs through millions of state and national criminal records, including the Most Wanted databases and the National Sex Offender Public Registry, and gives you results within minutes.
If you opt for a higher-tier bundle, you also have access to:
- Credit reports, for in-depth payment history information. It’s formatted in a way to easily analyze the risk of renting to the potential tenant.
- Eviction reports, so you can view your applicant’s eviction history and better predict future behavior. SmartMove pulls from their vast credit, personal, and address history databases and has access to one of the largest eviction databases in the United States.
- Income Insights, so you know which potential renters need additional income verification, and skip the rest. This information is based on TransUnion’s proprietary model, which compares the applicant’s self-reported income (as well as child support, alimony, and etc.) to the data pulled from their credit report, including the amount of money they spend, how much they pay toward balances, and the types of balances they carry.
We’ll get into SmartMove bundles and pricing later.
How SmartMove Works
To obtain a SmartMove tenant report, simply enter the applicant’s email address. SmartMove will send them a screening request, which they must accept to start the process. The company will then verify and send you the tenant report, complete with their leasing recommendation. Once you have received and fully evaluated the report, you can have SmartMove notify the applicant of your decision.
SmartMove Bundles & Pricing
SmartMove offers three tenant-screening bundles to choose from: Basic, Plus and Premium.
| BASIC | PLUS | PREMIUM | |
| Cost Per Screening | $25 | $38 | $40 |
| Credit-Based ResidentScore | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| National Criminal Background Report | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Full Credit Report | – | Yes | Yes |
| National Eviction Report | – | Yes | Yes |
| Income Insights | – | – | Yes |
For any of the bundles, you can choose to bill the potential tenant, instead of paying for the report yourself. Chances are, the tenant will gladly pay for the screening if they are serious about renting your property.
SmartMove Limitations
Before you sign on with SmartMove, consider the following:
Tenant involvement. Although SmartMove advertises itself as an instant service, the speed at which you receive tenant reports depends entirely on how quickly the potential tenant views the email and accepts the request. If the correspondence somehow gets lost, ignored, or ends up in the spam folder, you might never receive the report.
Missing criminal data. The criminal report does not cover five states: Colorado, Delaware, Massachusetts, South Dakota and Wyoming. If your applicant lived in one of the aforementioned states and committed a crime, it won’t show up on the tenant report.
Reports expire. SmartMove tenant reports expire after 30 days. This is due to a TransUnion regulation which aims to protect the applicant’s personal data.
Bottom Line
TransUnion SmartMove is an easy, convenient and effective way to screen potential tenants. If you’re a landlord, property manager or real estate agent, we suggest considering SmartMove to do the screening work for you.
You might also be interested in Buildium, an all-in-one platform that manages properties seamlessly. It lists vacant properties, collects rental applications, screens potential tenants, manages billing, tracks maintenance orders and more. Buildium is currently offering new customers a 14-day free trial.
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