in connection with a business transaction that is initiated by the consumer." Landlords are allowed to view credit reports only under Section 604(a)3F-1, because they are a person with a "legitimate business need. The safeguards are codified in the Fair Credit Reporting Act. You're a consumer, too, so you also benefit from these safeguards. Why is it hard to find a good Screening Service?įederal law requires that consumer information be protected from prying eyes. Their "ResidentScore" (also 350 to 850) aims to take into account eviction history and other metrics related to screening directly. TransUnion is the leader in the rental space. Or you can get a proprietary score from either of the three using data from just their separate records. The three major bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and Transuion) all license a "VantageScore," which has a range of 350 to 850. Since then, they reduce the range of possible scores from 1000 back down to 850. They told us at that time that their landlord product was scored on a range from 0 to 1000. In fact, they showed us that a person who scores 742 on FICO scores 801 on TransUnion. They said they were not reselling FICO data. In October 2015, MassLandlords asked Transunion to confirm what they were basing their data off of. A 350 FICO means you are a risk for loans but may not be relevant to rentals. But if you don't know where your data are coming from, having the same number doesn't help you know whether it applies to rentals. Arguably this reduces confusion: everyone knows that a 350 is "bad". It has the same range of possible values, 350 to 850. The "big three" credit bureaus - Transunion, Experian, and Equifax - sell credit data to landlords that looks like a FICO score but is not. FICO scores range from 350 to 850, just like the credit bureau scores, but FICO is not a credit bureau score. FICO scores are used by lenders to determine whether you can get a loan. Unfortunately, common knowledge is not quite right. Which credit scores are trusted scores?Ĭommon knowledge says the gold standard in tenant screening is a FICO score (Fair Isaac Corporation). Why? Because these are freely available to anyone with an Internet connection.Ĭheck for registered sex offenders in Massachusetts.Ĭheck for evictions in Massachusetts. In Massachusetts, we specifically don't care about sex offender searches or eviction history. We believe that a screening service should offer the following: Please use the comments and to suggest corrections or new providers.) Tenant Screening Service Qualifications Our intent is to stop taking these commissions the moment they no longer become the best provider. Since then we have affiliated with SmartScreen, which is one of the few services that we actually recommend. (Note: This article was first published July 2014. So which tenant screening service is best? One piece of the puzzle is a screening service that shows you credit risk and criminal history. There are many factors that go into a successful tenant screening. Updated June 20th, 2022 by Doug Quattrochi. Blog » Which Tenant Screening Service is Best? Which Tenant Screening Service is Best?
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