Tentant Credit Check
I am new at this. I am relocating to the Bay Area in Calif. and would like to get started by renting my home and trying to buy a prop where I relocate. How do I check the prospective tenant's credit?, what is a good website?, what do you normally charge the applicant?
Thanks!
Marcie. 
You can always ask a Real Estate Broker and they will line you up with a credit checking service. That is a start but is not an item of any great value. The biggest credit risks are in many instances the best of tenants.
Try to check where they have rented before and if all went well. If on examination of the persons you feel that they are ok, but they have had job changes, credit problems with cards etc. Do not always shut them out. You can always take more then the usual lst and last. I have delt with some of natures worst persons so far as credit, but good tenants. One man with his family of two kids and a dog was the best. You should have seen his credit. I would not have let him near the place, but his ex landlord told me he was a winner and she only let him go because her son moved into the unit and it was time he had a house.
Well I charged him lst and last and one in reserve.
He painted, offered to help redo the hardwood floors and then fired the man I sent to do it. Said he was worthless and proceeded to do the finest job of refinish I have ever seen. The landscaping oh my god shaped hedges, round mounded the shrubs. Look like the home of a really good Japanese Gardner.
Yes of course he was a writer, but I got him working steady on some trade journals that really needed him and the fiction and movie scripts he did on the side. The magazine work paid his rent and the kids all helped. More then I can say for mine.
Yes, I sold him the place and at top market cause he said he was happy at last and his little office and everything was perfect. I took a small down and borrowed some money on the second that I took back. He refinanced it about five years. We still meet at barbq's . Oh god has he got bad taste in women.
Cheers, Lucius
Call National Tenant Network! you can use www.ntnonline.com and get instant reports back, 24/7.
They specialize in helping new landlords and spend the time to help you.