RentPrep’s tenant screening services offer all the staple reports at good prices. Their smooth process and trustworthy data make them one of the better options in the crowded marketplace—provided you’re not renting in an area where they don’t provide criminal reports.
Sample Reports: RentPrep Background Check ($21), RentPrep TransUnion Full Credit Report ($40)
What is RentPrep?
RentPrep is a tenant screening service that provides credit and background checks on rental applicants. While RentPrep offers many resources for property managers, this review will focus on their tenant screening service.
RentPrep Features and Facts
| Feature | |
| Time to Get Results | Immediately (Income Verification requires additional authorization) |
| Data Source | TransUnion |
| Who Pays | Options for either landlord or tenant |
| Type of Application | Online through their portal |
| Hard Inquiry | No |
| Nationwide Criminal & Eviction Check | Yes |
| Felonies & Misdemeanors | Yes |
| SSN Fraud Check | Yes |
| Terrorist Check | No |
| Sex Offender Check | Yes |
| Income Verification | Yes, for $10 |
RentPrep Pros & Cons
- Beautiful Process for Applicants and Landlords – RentPrep clearly put thought into their application process and website in order to make it user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing.
- Reports for Judgments, Liens, and Income – While they cost extra, RentPrep offers a few extra reports for landlords who’d like to be more thorough.
- Solid Pricing – Their core package costs $40, which is on the lower end for comparable services.
- Long Verification Process – The applicant must go through a 10+ step process in order to provide the landlord with income verification.
- 9 States & D.C. Not Included in Criminal History – DE, CO, MA, WY, NC, SD, UT, HI, KY, and D.C. are excluded.
- Limited Information Gathered From Application – Many questions are still left to be answered by the applicant, such as vehicle & pet information, employment history, and reference contact information.
RentPrep Tenant Screening Pricing
| Package | Cost | Features |
| RentPrep Background Check | $21 |
Add-Ons:
|
| TransUnion Full Credit Report | $40 |
Add-Ons:
|
It’s a little curious that their low-end package has judgments and liens, but their upper package requires a paid add-on. However, unlike most other tenant screening services, their cheaper package actually isn’t bad—and if you add the two add-ons, you can screen tenants fairly well for $38.
RentPrep Walkthrough
Here’s how RentPrep’s process works for creating the application, the applicant’s process, the landlord’s process, and what the reports look like.
1. Create Application
The first step is to click on “My Properties” on the landlord’s dashboard:
Next, you’ll then input your rental unit’s details:
Once you have an applicant’s email address, you’ll then create a new order:
Then, you’ll select the tenant screening package on one of the only screens with poor design. We generally recommend going with the more comprehensive package, but their cheaper one (with the purchased add-ons) is a good choice, too.
Strangely, they do make you “Update Account” at this point. At first, it seems like you missed a step, but apparently this is how their process works.
At this point, you’ll select the rental unit and input the applicant’s email address. It’s worth noting that some tenant screening services will give you a link that you can advertise online. Then, you don’t need to have already collected an email address and the applicant doesn’t need to wait on you to send an application link via email. However, most tenant screening services do it the way RentPrep does, so it’s not a point against them.
Notice that you can auto-decline applicants for open bankruptcies (although an auto-decline feature for other elements of their application would be nice as well):
You can then include any add-ons you’d like. For this walkthrough, we purchased both add-ons (Income Verification and Judgment/Lien Search).
Then you’ll select the monthly rent amount:
You can then select whether you or the renter will pay for the report:
RentPrep will now email an application link to your applicant:
2. Tenant Application Process
Here’s the email that your applicant will see:
You’re then taken to an authorization screen, where the applicant can authorize reports to be pulled:
Next, the applicant will fill out a standard Personal Information section:
However, the process then moves onto identity verification. The actual data collection in the first step is minimal. Once you’ve found an applicant you like, you’ll have to reach out to gather more information (such as vehicle, pet, employer, and reference contact information) to fully vet the applicant. A better process would be to collect that information here as well, but RentPrep is in line with what most other tenant screening services do.
After paying, the applicant is notified that the process is complete and that the landlord will be notified:
Since we purchased the add-ons, the applicant then needs to provide further authorization for income verification. The reminder for this comes via email and SMS (which is a nice touch).
This screenshot below (consisting of 9 separate screenshots) details the lengthy process for income verification. There were more steps not included here because they contained banking information. This process is done through a 3rd-party (Payscore), but it’s still a point against RentPrep for having such a drawn-out process here.
3. Landlord Reports View
Once the application is finished and authorization given, reports are available immediately. This page isn’t the easiest to decipher, but clicking on the various blue buttons will help you find what you need fairly quickly:
The main 3 reports given are displayed in a very user-friendly way. Other services require lots of scrolling or to click back to other pages. Here, there are 3 links at the top that allow you to toggle between the reports:
4. Credit Report
First, we see the SSN verification, and then an address history:
The important thing to note under the Profile Summary is the quick view of any derogatory items:
Now, don’t skip this part, even though there’s a lot of information piled together. In the “Total” row at the bottom, you can see their total monthly debt payment and their total debt balance. That’s extremely important for calculating an accurate debt-to-income figure, which is much more predictive of a good renter than rent-to-income can ever be.
Now, an interesting choice that RentPrep has made is to exclude a credit score, but to include a Resident Score. This metric was developed by TransUnion to help better predict good renters. It’s basically a credit score catered only towards renters. Some landlords may not like the exclusion of credit score here, but Resident Score is actually more useful.
Scrolling down the credit report, you’ll find trade lines for the renter. These are a description of the applicant’s individual debts. Here you can see this is a mortgage payment, and that all the payments have been made on time:
Here you’ll see any inquiries made, which happen when your renter has looked into opening a new trade line. These fall off after 2 years.
5. Criminal & Eviction Reports
Here’s the simple criminal report:
Next up is the eviction report:
6. Income Report
First, you’ll see a quick rent-to-income metric. This isn’t our favorite because it doesn’t include a debt figure. Two applicants with $100k income are not the same quality of renter if one has double the amount of debt.
Then, you can begin to see a summary of their recurring income. RentPrep does this by taking a look at all the deposits made into the bank account and finding the ones that show up consistently.
At the bottom is a summary of how much money is in their bank account. This can be helpful to see, as a renter with more money saved up can better withstand fluctuations in income and continue to pay rent consistently.
Next, you can see the actual sources for the net income over periods of time:
Then, you can see all instances of recurring income:
You can then see all the non-recurring income. This can be helpful when you have an applicant who earns money from inconsistent contract work or projects:
For many landlords, this Income Verification report doesn’t seem necessary. It provides a lot of information, but much of it isn’t very helpful or can be corroborated for free. For example, you should be contacting employers whether you have this information or not. You can verify employment that way, and asking for 12 months of W-2s can confirm consistent income from your renter.
7. Liens & Judgments Report
In this report, you’ll see a simple report about whether anyone else has any claim to the renter’s money, or if any court decisions concerning money have been made against them.
Should You Use RentPrep?
Overall, RentPrep is one of the better options on the market. Their beautifully smooth application process is in the upper-tier compared to the competition, and their reports come in an easy-to-navigate format. While some information is only available via add-on, those reports aren’t often included by their competitors, either.
The only downsides here are the lack of criminal reports in some states, as well as lacking a terrorist report (that some competitors offer). As long as you’re not in one of the states lacking a criminal report, RentPrep is a top-tier option.
RentPrep Frequently Asked Questions
These are the most common questions asked about RentPrep:
1. Is RentPrep a Legitimate Site?
RentPrep is a legitimate site. They are FCRA compliant and are recommended by some of the industry’s largest influencers (such as Brandon Turner from BiggerPockets).
2. Does RentPrep Run a Hard Credit Inquiry?
Credit checks from RentPrep are done via soft inquiry and will not affect the applicant’s credit score.
3. Are RentPrep’s Tenant Screening Reports Accurate?
RentPrep’s reports are accurate and thorough, and are some of the best organized and presented of all the tenant screening services.
