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Landlord

Tenant background check in Washington

Washington law keeps a few things off screening reports, including medical debt, most records older than seven years, and some eviction cases. Most of its rules cover the steps around your decision: a written notice before you screen and written reasons if you say no. Seattle and Olympia add their own rules. This guide covers what a Washington background check includes, the rules at each stage, and how RentSpree helps you handle each step from application to decision.

Smiling woman with dark hair wearing striped blazer and gold necklace, standing outside near a wooden structure.
Kimberly Mingo
Landlord

Zillow Rental Manager review: pricing, screening, and how it compares

Zillow Rental Manager is a free listing and management tool that puts your rental in front of renters on Zillow, Trulia, and HotPads. Screening, leases, and rent collection are free for landlords, and applicants pay a $35 screening fee. The tradeoffs come down to reach and follow-through: your listing only appears in Zillow’s network, repairs are yours to coordinate, and financial tracking centers on rent payment records. RentSpree may be a better fit if you want to reach renters on other sites too, hand off repair coordination, and see where your money stands all year.

Smiling woman with dark hair wearing striped blazer and gold necklace, standing outside near a wooden structure.
Kimberly Mingo
Landlord

How to find (and verify) good tenants: a process landlords can repeat

Finding a good tenant comes down to a simple process you can repeat for every vacancy. Set your criteria in writing before you advertise your property for rent. Get your listing in front of enough qualified applicants. Verify the credit, income, rental and criminal history, and identity, of your applicants and approve the first one who meets your criteria. Tenant screening software can handle a lot of that work at little or no cost. RentSpree is free for landlords: it posts your listing to Zillow and other major rental sites, and checks the applicants criminal history, credit score, eviction history, and verifies their income.

Smiling woman with dark hair wearing striped blazer and gold necklace, standing outside near a wooden structure.
Kimberly Mingo

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Landlord

Tenant background check in New York

A New York tenant background check works differently from one run almost anywhere else. State law caps screening fees at $20, bars landlords from denying an applicant over a past housing court case, and seals many older convictions automatically. New York City requires a conditional offer before criminal history can be reviewed at all. That leaves credit and verified income carrying most of the weight in a New York decision. This guide covers the rules at each stage, how to read what you receive, and how RentSpree handles New York screening from application to decision.

Smiling woman with dark hair wearing striped blazer and gold necklace, standing outside near a wooden structure.
Kimberly Mingo
Landlord

Tenant placement services: what they do, what they cost, and whether you need one

Tenant placement services typically charge 50% to 100% of one month's rent to handle the leasing process from vacancy to move-in. But much of what these services offer is now available to landlords through free tenant screening software. With these tools, landlords can list and market a unit, manage applications, screen tenants, and verify income on their own. Whether you hire a service, work with an agent, or manage the process yourself, the most important thing is making sure the screening is thorough and you’re getting bank-verified income to confirm what the tenant actually earns.

Smiling woman with dark hair wearing striped blazer and gold necklace, standing outside near a wooden structure.
Kimberly Mingo
5 million users
Company

5 million users strong, and counting

RentSpree has passed five million users, a major growth milestone. Rental demand keeps climbing across the U.S., and RentSpree is meeting it with the tools landlords, agents, and renters need.

Smiling woman with long brown hair in a black shirt standing in a bright modern hallway.
Aileen Romero
Event Marketing Lead
Landlord

RentRedi review: pricing, features, and how it compares

RentRedi is a subscription-based property management platform built for landlords looking for screening, rent collection, maintenance tracking, and accounting in one place. Plans start at $12 per month (billed annually), with no free tier. On top of the subscription fee, tenant screening runs $39.99 to $49.99, typically paid by the applicant where permitted. RentRedi's single-plan pricing structure keeps things simple, though landlords who want to get started without a subscription, reduce their compliance risk, or reach more renters through broader listing distribution may find RentSpree to be a better fit.

Smiling woman with dark hair wearing striped blazer and gold necklace, standing outside near a wooden structure.
Kimberly Mingo
Landlord

TurboTenant vs. Zillow Rental Manager (and an alternative worth considering)

Most landlords comparing TurboTenant and Zillow Rental Manager are trying to answer the same question: how do I find the right tenant? That means getting your listing in front of renters, screening the people who apply, and confirming they actually earn what they claim. Zillow gives you the audience, but you can only verify income with uploaded pay stubs, which AI tools can easily doctor. TurboTenant's free plan covers screening, but it skips Zillow and charges $199 a year to verify income. RentSpree handles all three on its free plan: Zillow syndication, TransUnion screening, and bank-verified income for a flat $49.99 per tenant screening that you can require the applicant to pay.

Smiling woman with dark hair wearing striped blazer and gold necklace, standing outside near a wooden structure.
Kimberly Mingo
Landlord

How to verify tenant employment (and reduce income fraud)

Employment verification helps you check where an applicant works, while income verification confirms how much they earn. Both can help you evaluate the information an applicant provides against the criteria you've set for your rental. You can verify employment by contacting an employer directly, then verify income through financial documents or bank-connected income data. RentSpree brings the application, screening reports, income verification, and reference checks together in one place. Bank-connected income verification pulls deposit data directly from an applicant's financial institution, so you're not relying on documents that could be altered.

Smiling woman with dark hair wearing striped blazer and gold necklace, standing outside near a wooden structure.
Kimberly Mingo
Landlord

Credit checks for tenants: what landlords need to know

Most landlords check the credit score and stop there. Knowing how to read that data, set documented criteria around it, and handle denials correctly is what separates a confident screening decision from a costly one. RentSpree's screening includes a TransUnion credit report with ResidentScore on every application, with most results back in two hours.

Smiling woman with dark hair wearing striped blazer and gold necklace, standing outside near a wooden structure.
Kimberly Mingo
RentSpree logo and RPR logo
News

RentSpree is Now Available in RPR

Now available through RPR's Additional Resources, RentSpree gives REALTORS® a direct path from the Property Details page to rental application and tenant screening tools.

Smiling woman with long brown hair in a black shirt standing in a bright modern hallway.
Aileen Romero
Event Marketing Lead
RentSpree logo and MIBOR BLC logo
News

RentSpree Partners with MIBOR Broker Listing Cooperative, Bringing RentEdge to ConnectBLC

The BLC joins a rapidly expanding network of REALTOR® associations and MLSs integrating RentEdge to help agents build better client relationships and long-term relationships through rentals.

Smiling woman with long brown hair in a black shirt standing in a bright modern hallway.
Aileen Romero
Event Marketing Lead