Particularly for first time landlords, tenant screening may seem like a waste of time – an unnecessary road block standing between you and your rent checks. Who needs a credit report or background check you’re not even prepared to interpret? You trust yourself to meet a prospective tenant in person and judge whether or not …
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Understanding Background Checks: Eviction and Criminal Reports
Why Background Checks Matter As a landlord, you’re loaning one of your most valuable assets, a home, to someone who is essentially a complete stranger. That’s a pretty big deal. And as much as you’d love to believe that all prospective tenants are perfectly good people who would never damage your unit (or your trust), …
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Hard vs. Soft Credit Inquiries: How They Affect You and Your Applicants
When you rent your property to a tenant, they agree to pay you a certain amount of money in exchange for access to a living or working space. Rent is an obligation to pay money owed and, in this way, is just debt in another context. Understanding a renter’s history of paying past debts can …
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Interpreting Your Tenant’s Credit Report: What You Should Know
After a lease agreement, a credit report is arguably the most important document a landlord can learn to handle. If a tenant has a history of late payments or defaulting on debt, he or she is likely to do it again. Fortunately, running a tenant screening report or purchasing a credit check is a pretty …
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Announcing Innago Tenant Screening
We are proud to announce a major new feature set on Innago: Online Tenant Screening. Powered by our partners at TransUnion, Innago Tenant Screening includes a full credit report, a national criminal database search, and an optional eviction check shared instantly in an easy to read and easy to manage format.* Additionally, Innago will now …
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Service Animals and Emotional Support Animals in Rental Properties
We all know the dangers: pets can destroy hardwood floors, tear up carpets, frighten neighbors, and cause a regular and disruptive disturbance. For this reason, many landlords choose to prohibit any tenant with a pet from renting their property or unit, and they are entirely justified, both legally and ethically, in doing so. Things become …
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Revamping Commercial Properties for New Use
Major changes in the way people shop, work, and interact have left the commercial real estate market on edge. In retail, the continuous growth of e-commerce has had a devastating effect on once prominent brick-and-mortar businesses. Traditional office buildings are struggling to keep up with shifts in workplace dynamics and the rise of the work-from-home …
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Why Population Growth in the Suburbs is Outpacing City Growth
During the late nineteenth century, many Americans flocked to cities in search of factory work. In the postwar era of the 1940s-1950s, this trend was reversed. Because of low housing costs and GI Bill benefits, even working class Americans found that they could afford to own homes in the suburbs and pursue “The American Dream”. …
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Everything you Need to Know Before Renting to Tenants with Pets
In 1988, the first year the American Pet Products Association conducted their annual National Pet Ownership Survey, 56% of households were home to dogs, cats, and other furry (or non-furry) friends. The latest results show that number has grown all the way to 68% of American families or about 85 million households. What’s more, pet …
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Comparing Commercial Lease Types: Net, Gross, and Percentage Leases
So you’ve decided to take the plunge into commercial real estate. Investing in and managing commercial properties is quite different than the residential market, and many of those differences start with the lease. New landlords often have limited experience with commercial leases and the differences can understandably seem complex and overwhelming. But, fear not, there’s …
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