The evolving economy makes it tricky for property managers to consistently meet occupancy and meet revenue expectations. Digital tenant screening tools can save time and money by improving the application process and decisioning strategies, which benefits applicants and property owners.

Establishing digital methods to rate relative risk of your applicants, maintain occupancy, and increase resident quality is the path to a bright future. This is especially important for large organizations in high stakes rental markets need to evaluate many applications daily. No more days of dealing with illegible handwriting, and missing documentation. Most digital tenant screening platforms pull records from large databases and provide results in minutes.

Digital tenant screening platforms collect standard information and provide secure portals for applicants to use.

These screening products will analyze the credit profiles, court records, and income-to-rent ratios to decide if the tenant is a qualified candidate.

These include:

·       Proof of ID

·       Number of occupants

·       Name and contact info of applicant(s)

·       Income statements

·       Employment history

·       History of past addresses

Digital screening methods automate the process

Many digital resident screening tools rate customer application data, credit, and public record information on a scale. Property Managers can adjust their acceptance criteria to respond to the evolving marketplace and keep units occupied. Statistical lease screening methods assign rankings to the applications enabling property managers the ability to identify the best possible renters from the applicant pool.

These digital screening methods are save time and evaluate if the if the residency will be successful.

The pros and cons of digital resident screening

Today's digital rental application process assists landlords in selecting the top residents from the applicant pool by providing a quick and comprehensive view of their applicants. Data can be evaluated, providing risk scores for making decisions that increase the bottom line. Potential renters prefer the digital application because it's fast, secure, and convenient.

Digital tenant screening opens the window for fraud

The ratings an applicant is given are based on the information provided – but what if that information is false? In Snappt’s recent study, Confronting the Costs of Rental Fraud, they found that property managers noted that 10% of fraudulent applications are going unnoticed during the screening process. In addition, two-thirds (66%) of property managers reported that they had been the victim of fraudulent rental applications.

Technology can result in rental application fraud, leading to higher evictions. Tenant application fraud includes:

·      Falsified income statements

·      Fraudulent employment records

·      Fake ID’s

Tenant fraud is an ongoing problem and property managers are seeing a significant increase in this particular type of fraud in the past few decades. Affordable tech like scanners, digital cameras, and the availability of anything to be purchased online – forging documents has become very easy.

With technology and screening tools you can limit or prevent your risk of allowing a fraudulent future resident to become a resident in the first place and prevent eviction from hitting your ROI. 

Identifying fraud in your digital resident screening method

The best way to see if your potential tenant is being deceitful to you is to utilize a modernized tenant screening process, one that includes standard and technology-enabled evaluation.