Identifying quality residents will keep your long-term costs low. Low occupancy rates in the current Canadian rental market allow property managers to focus on selecting the most desirable residents for their vacancies. It is important, however, to make quality selections quickly before those ideal prospects sign a lease elsewhere! Explore how technology can help you efficiently sign leases with the right residents. Know your applicants Basic credit checks aren’t enough to get to know prospective renters. Add a range of inquiries to screening process to give you deeper insights that help mitigate risk—without slowing down the process. “A more robust screening process doesn’t have to be time consuming. Online, automated applicant screening improves speed, data access, and accuracy. Your screening software should integrate with your property management platform for full transparency,” suggests Peter Altobelli, vice president and general manager of Yardi Canada. Screen confidently Regardless of income, prospective renters need to be held to the same screening standards. Equifax credit data, criminal and court records, fraud checks, employment and rental histories are all important sources of information to properly evaluate an applicant. “Consider adding Certn as well to your screening process as well. Certn is the world’s largest risk relevant database, uses data from thousands of publicly available records and incorporates artificial intelligence and machine learning to evaluate prospects,” Altobelli says. Certn data includes high-risk behaviors, criminal and court records from 240 countries, 350 Canadian court boards and tribunals, adverse media, eviction records, watch lists and social media profiles. Understand the benefits  Advanced screening technology that analyzes a range of reliable data can help you consistently choose quality residents. When that technology integrates with your leasing and accounting platform, it brings additional benefits. “An integrated screening solution compares your screening process with the overall...

Property managers using Yardi’s ScreeningWorks Pro solution have a new tool for making resident screening faster and more reliable. The Work Number® from Equifax enables instant online verification of current employment status and payroll income and eliminates reliance on applicant-provided pay stubs and federal W-2 forms. “We are very excited to join forces with Yardi to offer instant verifications to the rent community utilizing The Work Number database,” says Tom Ciulla, vice president of enterprise alliances at Equifax, which manages the nation’s largest repository of verified income and employment information. “Available for the first time in rental markets, these solutions will not only help speed up the application process, but greatly assist the consumer and property manager with each transaction.” Patrick Hennessey, vice president of resident screening for Yardi, adds, “Without online access to verified income data, property managers could spend hours tracking down current and legitimate pay stubs. The Work Number is a great service that helps ScreeningWorks Pro clients reduce fraud and speed up the approval of qualified applicants.” The Work Number database houses employment records contributed by tens of thousands of employers nationwide, including 82% of the Fortune 500, a rapidly increasing number of small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) and the majority of the federal government’s civilian employers. See how companies are finding success with ScreenWorks Pro, a comprehensive solution that includes credit reports, rental history and other publicly reportable civil or criminal records....

Screening applicants manually and using paper reports that require further research slows your staff down — and can cost you your best prospects and valuable leases. Here’s some good news: replacing a paper-based process for qualifying applicants and converting them to residents is easier than you might think. Clients already know that approving quality residents as part of their automated leasing workflow with ScreeningWorks Pro saves time and money. The system includes advanced functionality to help clients not only easily select low risk residents who improve their bottom line, but also get more detailed analytics about individual applicants, local area renters and overall property performance that aids in decision making for the entire organization. Scoring for leasing wins Landmark Realty Controller Larry Busgeon said that one of his favorite features of ScreeningWorks Pro is the ability to select unique screening criteria for every property type in Landmark’s nationwide portfolio. “Our Albuquerque properties are lower end so we’re not worried so much about credit score as we are history of tenancy, For San Francisco, of course we want (strong) credit scores because the rents are much higher there, and we want to see some history on that credit score,” Busgeon explained. Landmark also has a mixed portfolio of apartments in Kansas City, Mo., a market that presents its own set of challenges. Using the most reliable data available, ScreeningWorks Pro provides automated recommendations that minimize risk. In San Francisco, Landmark uses it to screen long term residents, and has also expanded use to short term residents who stay for just 30 days. In Kansas City, Landmark screens both HUD and market rate prospects. “ScreeningWorks Pro is an excellent choice — you can fine-tune criteria by market and offer self-service convenience to applicants, with mobile access...