The TenantMagic staff conducted a competitive analysis of tenant screening services providers to see how TenantMagic compares. We found many services that offer the same type of reports – credit, criminal, eviction, and sex offender. We then took a further dive to see how TenantMagic was different.
The tenant screening services we selected offered similar reports. We excluded companies that only provided credit reports and enterprise property management systems that had tenant screening as a part of a suite of services.
Overall, we found that the other tenant screening services focused strictly on the reports, where TenantMagic handles the entire application and screening process along with providing customer service to the applicants every step along the way.
We interviewed dozens of real estate agents and landlords when we were developing TenantMagic five years ago. The time it took to get prospects through the application process was the one pain that was consistently articulated by both agent and landlords.
It starts with the handling the calls and setting up appointments. Then there is the time it takes to collect the completed applications (usually paper), application fees, run a background report and make a selection.
The biggest headaches came from applicants that were:
- No shows
- Just looking
- Went through the application process but didn’t meet basic income qualifications
If a background report was used by the agent and landlord it usually consisted of a credit report, which alone is not sufficient to determine the quality of a potential renter.
What we found was that TenantMagic is the only tenant screening program that addresses the entire application process from the inquiry to providing the notification to applicants that were both accepted or declined.
The agent or landlord simply enters the applicant’s email into the system and TenantMagic handles the rest. This includes all customer service during the application process for the applicant. If there is a problem, the applicant is instructed to contact TenantMagic, not the agent or landlord.
The agent or landlord gets a completed application with the screening reports and a rental recommendation based on income and credit history requirements. The completed application and reports are available minutes after being submitted by the applicant.
As an added benefit, TenantMagic is free to agents and landlords. The applicant pays the fee.
By using TenantMagic, agents and landlords can stop wasting time with unqualified rental applicants and focus on their primary business. And that is why TenantMagic is the tenant screening service that works best for not only agents and landlords but applicants too.