Whether you fax in your applications for screening (some people still do this) or use our online screening tool, the Internet Instant Inquiry, insuring that the information on the application is complete, accurate and legible goes a long way towards improving your results.  Many property managers end up running the same person two, three and sometimes four times because of inaccuracies entered into the screening search.

If you take a sampling of your typical applications and examine the handwriting of the applicant, you will notice the difficulty in determining the spelling of many words.  If you are faxing these applications, just imagine how difficult it is to read the text once it comes out of a fax machine.

Since the applicant’s information must be processed by a computer at some point, it pays for you to understand that computers are very literate...if a misspelled name is entered, that is what the search will be based on.  “Allen” and “Alan” are completely different names when it comes to searching for records.

A person that is trying to hide something may alter some of their information in an attempt to “fool” the computer search. A prime example comes from a recent search in our office that  involved an altering of the last digit of the applicant’s date of birth.  When the inquiry was run, the date of birth that the person gave was exposed as incorrect, because our report showed that her Social Security number had been issued prior to the fictitious date of birth.  When the inquiry was run, the date of birth that the person gave was exposed as incorrect, because our report showed that her Social Security number had been issued prior to the fictitious date of birth.

The property manager involved then ran a second report with the correct date of birth, and a whole list of evictions and criminal records filled the screen.

The point of this is to illustrate the need for accuracy when doing your screening.  A good way to increase accuracy is  to compare the applicant’s Social Security Card and driver’s license  to see that your application is filled out correctly.  This will greatly improve your results, and eliminate the need to order additional reports on the same person.  (See the related article titled, “Are You Screening Before Screening?”).

Review the information prior to submitting it to insure readability (if faxing) and to make sure it is accurate.   You will have much better reports as a result.