Head Of In-Lease Experience

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Journalist, Stacker

We cover the ins and outs of tenant screening, from how to do it yourself to the best tenant screening services to find the right people to occupy your home.

How To Find Great Tenants: The Best Tenant Screening Services

When you place a tenant in your home, who you choose can make or break your rental experience. Someone who is late on their rent or damages your home can be a costly nightmare for landlords. What you want is a person or family who is reliable with rent and trustworthy, treating the place as they would their own. 

Finding that perfect fit is a big deal, it’s why tenant screening services and property managers are so popular, helping to take the burden off landlords. 

There are four approaches you can take to finding great tenants:

1. Do your own vetting of tenant applications with a mix of research and screening services

2. Outsource background checks to a tenant screening service

3. Hire a property management company to manage applications and tenant screening

4. Hire Belong to take a human approach to tenant screening, pairing all the necessary checks with interviewing potential residents for the perfect long-term fit

Before we dive into the ins and outs of each approach, the best advice we can give is to remember that tenants are more than a financial transaction. They are people looking for a place to call home. If you want reliable people who will treat your home as their own, you need to treat them as such. 

This is why Belong refers to renters as ‘residents’, not tenants. By treating everyone in our residential network with mutual respect, combining best-in-class technology with a human-centered approach, we can foster a feeling of belonging that attracts the kind of people you want to live in your home. 

Approach #1: Conduct your own tenant screening

If you want to go it alone and manage your own rental applications, you will need to conduct a series of necessary checks manually and with a bit of help from some screening services. You should also brush up on Fair Housing Laws to ensure your ads and questions don't discriminate against any potential applicants.

Your tenant screening process should examine the following:

Financial stability/ability to service the asking rent

References from employees and previous landlords or property managers

Tenant identify and past experiences in the rental market can be verified using online tenant screening services including:

Don’t forget to ask for and contact references to verify any information received and be on the lookout for any accidental or willful omissions/deceit.

Approach #2: Hire a tenant screening service to manage the process

If you want to manage part of the process yourself but need some help, you can enlist the help of a tenant screening service that will provide you with a background check and necessary reports for review. 

Background checks, criminal record and credit rating checks are typically covered by tenant screening services. Keep in mind that these checks are just the basics of tenant screening to rule out financial red flags. The rest of the process still needs to be performed by you or your property manager.

To help you do the best screening, you’ll want a service that offers a these 5 services:

1. Consumer credit report (from any of Experian, Equifax or Transunion)

Here are a few tenant screening services to consider:

Approach #3: Hire a property manager to manage applicants and tenant screening

A run-down on what 1031 Exchange Rules mean to landlords and homeowners considering putting their home on the rental market.

What Landlords Should Know About 1031 Exchange Rules

If you own an investment property and are considering selling, it's time to get up to speed with a tax benefit known as a 1031 exchange. A 1031 exchange (sometimes called a "like-kind" exchange) will allow the homeowner to defer paying capital gains tax on the sale of an investment property, as long as the proceeds from the sale are reinvested into a similar home (of equal or greater value, within a certain timeframe). 

What is the advantage of a 1031 exchange?

If you own an investment property that has appreciated in value, you will pay capital gains tax on the sale. The advantage of a 1031 exchange is that it lets you defer capital gains tax, so you have more net cash to invest in a replacement property.

Owners of rental homes use a 1031 exchange for a number of reasons, including:

Buying a property that promises to offer a better rental return;

When selling an investment home, owners have 45 days to identify a replacement property for the sold asset. You're given 180 days in total to complete the 1031 exchange (inclusive of the time you took to identify the replacement). 

You must also satisfy one of the following requirements: 

1. The Three-Property Rule lets you identify three properties as potential purchases regardless of their market value;

2. The 200% Rule allows you to identify unlimited replacement properties, provided the properties’ cumulative value doesn’t exceed 200% of the value of the property sold; or

3. The 95% Rule permits a homeowner to identify as many properties as they like, provided the homeowner acquires properties valued at 95% of their total or more.


The identification must be in writing, signed by the taxpayer, and delivered to the replacement property seller. It’s customary for the identification to be delivered to the qualified intermediary, but a written statement in a contract to purchase the replacement property stating that the buyer is identifying the subject property as his replacement meets the requirements. Note that there’s no licensing or other formal eligibility for intermediaries. However, the tax code disqualifies anyone who’s acted as a taxpayer’s agent and those who are related. The term “agent” includes accountants, attorneys, and realtors who’ve worked on behalf of the taxpayer in the last two years.

There are also a few other requirements to keep in mind:

The proceeds received from the sale of properties must be used to buy the new properties

An intermediary is required to hold all the cash from the sales in escrow, in a segregated account, until it’s used for the new purchases; and

You don’t pay taxes on the recapture of depreciation, but your depreciation schedule doesn’t start over. We will explain that below.

Based on the current tax code, you can make as many exchanges as you want; but when the property is finally sold and the proceeds aren’t reinvested in a new property, any capital gains and depreciation recapture tax liability kick in.

Depreciation is the percentage of the cost of an investment property that’s declared as an expense, such as the effects of wear and tear on the home. Expenditures of that kind can be claimed as a tax deduction when they occur.

When a property is sold, any capital gains taxes are determined based on the property’s net-adjusted value, which is the property’s original purchase price, plus any capital improvements, minus depreciation. 

If an investment property is sold for more than its depreciated value, a homeowner may be required to “recapture” the depreciation, which means the amount of depreciation will be included in his or her taxable income from the eventual sale of the property.

The rules for 1031 exchanges state that properties are of like-kind if they’re of the same nature or character, even if they differ in grade or quality. In general, real estate properties are like-kind properties, no matter if they’ve been improved or not. But note that property in the United States and property outside the U.S. aren't like-kind properties.

The IRS states that if you make a like-kind exchange, you aren’t required to recognize a gain or loss under Internal Revenue Code Section 1031. However, if as part of the exchange, the owner also receives other (not like-kind) property or money, that not like-kind portion of the transaction must be reported to the IRS as a gain when measured against the other property and money received (The IRS says that a homeowner can’t recognize a loss.).

For homeowners to receive the full benefit of a 1031 exchange, the replacement property must be of equal or greater value.

Are there different kinds of like-kind exchanges?

Yes. There are three types of 1031 exchanges that vary by their timing and other details. Each has its own requirements and procedures:

1031 exchanges that are carried out within 180 days get this name because in the past, exchanges had to be performed simultaneously.  In a delayed exchange, the homeowner relinquishes property before he acquires a new property. The “relinquished” property is transferred first, and the property the homeowner wants to purchase is acquired second.

This type of 1031 exchange permits the replacement property to be renovated or newly constructed. Note that because these exchanges are still subject to the 180-day rule,  all improvements and construction on the exchanged property must be completed by the time the transaction is executed.

If a homeowner makes any improvements after this point, they won’t qualify as part of the exchange.

This is when a homeowner acquires the replacement property prior to selling the property to be exchanged. Here, the property must be transferred to what is called an exchange accommodation titleholder (which can be the qualified intermediary) and a qualified exchange accommodation agreement must be signed. With this type of exchange, a third party temporarily holds a homeowner's relinquished or replacement property.

A property for exchange must be identified within 45 days of the transfer of the property, and the transaction must be carried out within the same 180 days.

What properties are eligible for 1031 exchange?

The IRS says that there are many forms of real estate that can be used for a 1031 exchange. This includes any property used for a business that includes a store, manufacturing facility, or office building.

Plus, investment property is also eligible for a 1031 exchange—this includes rental properties.

Again, the properties involved must be “like-kind.” The like-kind requirement is interpreted liberally, and almost all real estate properties qualify as like-kind. The types of like-kind properties may include:

What properties cannot be used in a 1031 exchange?

There are several types of property that cannot be used for a 1031 exchange. They include the following:

Stock in trade or other property held primarily for sale;

Other securities or evidence of indebtedness or interest;

Certificates of trust or beneficial interests;

A chose in action, which is a right to something, like payment of a debt or damages in a lawsuit); and

A run-down on what landlords should know about 1031 Exchange Rules and what it means for homeowners looking to put their home on the rental market.

Like many, we are addicted to looking at great homes. For Halloween, we couldn't resist sharing some of our favorite spooky home dress-ups.

Haunted – and Haunting – Houses

Other than Christmas, no holiday incites the imagination and the decorative prowess of Americans like Halloween. It’s one of our favorite traditions, the miraculous (or should we say devilish) transformations that houses nationwide undergo. It’s one of the rare instances where the lovable and the terrifying go hand-in-hand.  If for no other reason than to celebrate that paradoxical combination, we bring you our favorite Halloween houses of 2021.

If this Los Angeles house almost feels like a movie set, maybe it’s because the person behind it – Christine McConnell – is a professional photographer.

Building from the ground up – literally – this homeowner puts their own creative spin on the zombie genre. Like if Danny Boyle art-directed a haunted house.

A unique sense of scale makes this decoration feel particularly grand – almost like the house is being picked up and played with by a terrifying skeleton.

The best thing about this house?  Take away the lights and you’ve got your Thanksgiving decorations already taken care of!

So good we wouldn’t be surprised if it graced the cover of the National Enquirer’s next UFO expose. 

Our guest blogger at 14th Street Capital provides a run-down on how technology is making self-managing your own property much easier. 

3 Ways Tech Innovations Help Landlords Better Manage Their Properties

From our guest blogger Grant McDonald, the Vice President of Corporate Development at 14th Street Capital, a run-down on how technology is making self-managing your own property that much easier.  

I probably don’t need to tell you that being a landlord takes a lot of money and a lot of time. The average annual operating and capital expenditure can be around $2,000 - $3,000 per home. The amount of time it takes from your life is a little harder to quantify, but ask anyone who’s acted as a landlord – you’re sure to get an earful.

Just consider how much needs to be taken care of: getting the place ready; screening tenants; sending rent notifications; resolving maintenance issues; keeping detailed tax records. The list is immense and many landlords describe it as close to a full-time job.

For decades, outside of hiring a property manager, there wasn’t much a homeowner could do in terms of lightening their workload. Recently though, technology has begun to innovate aspects of property management, just as it is transforming other aspects of our lives.

While these new platforms don’t take on all the responsibilities of a property manager, they do make self-managing your own rental property that much easier and more efficient.

Let’s have a look at some of the ways in which technology is making a difference.

Online property management platforms have emerged to meet the needs of DIY property managers. One place to start your research is Investopedia, who’ve done the digging and compiled a list of the 7 best software platforms for rental properties.

Each has different features and benefits, and some are designed for homeowners with multiple properties. What’s more, each requires a different level of technological sophistication, so we advise you to do your homework.

That said, there is a great deal of overlap when it comes to basic functions, like online rent applications; credit screening; billing functionality, and messaging. Some allow landlords to set their own standards, but be careful that you do nothing to violate Fair Housing Laws.

These online platforms allow homeowners to automate the screening process, so they can set their own standards in terms of potential residents’ credit scores, rental history, and employment details.

Landlords report that fulfilling and tracking maintenance requests consumes a huge amount of time – maybe more than any other single responsibility. So it's worth looking into how different platforms manage that process. Homeowners can accept and respond to tenant maintenance requests using online platforms. You also transfer the service requests to the contractors and craftspeople who will be fixing the problem from within many of these platforms; meanwhile, tenants can use them to make maintenance requests, keep track of the repairs, and provide feedback to landlords, which simplifies their lives a little, too!

Sometimes there is a standard maintenance form, but given the unique nature of each property and the wide variety of possible maintenance issues, I think you’ll find the ability to customize these templates is important. Though of course the customization process might take up some of the time you’re trying to save. 

The good thing about Investopedia is that unlike many “best of” websites, they aren’t an advertising website disguised as content. They have real editors and writers, so you can trust that what you read is objective and isn’t what’s called “pay to play.”

Online cloud storage platforms like Dropbox and Apple’s iCloud are useful for landlords in terms of keeping important documents safe, secure, and accessible from any device with an internet connection. They’re a great place to store tenancy documents, agreements, contracts, inspection reports, and other essential documents. 

Some platforms even allow users to generate e-signature to digitally sign lease agreements and other essential documents.  Landlords can also use DocuSign for that basic requirement, although many of the platforms described early include that option as well.

The nice thing about Cloud Storage platforms is that they also make life easier for both you and your residents. They can quickly find all the documents they need, while you are spared a string of tiresome requests.

You may have heard about the IoT, or the “Internet of Things.”  Devices like Alexa and Google Home are examples of the IoT; they’re connected, “smart” devices – or things, if you prefer – that send data up to the cloud and down to a smartphone, creating a virtual bridge between you, the cloud, and the device itself, no matter where you are.

For landlords, there are several applications of this core technology. For instance, there are smart water detectors and alarms that will notify both you and your tenant should there be a basement flood. Think of it as a technology insurance policy that can protect you from the devastating consequences of a broken pipe or hot water heater. Here’s a link to some of these surprisingly affordable and essential devices on Amazon.

There have also been breakthroughs in smaller and higher-resolution security cameras. These can be useful to landlords, but there are a lot of complexities around the legal implications. Belong has written about that on this blog, so check out this important context. 

Smart door locks are another technological asset; here’s a link to some of the best as assessed by PC magazine. Landlords report that tenant “lock out” situations are a continual problem and distraction. These elegant solutions solve the problem!

In short, technology can make a landlord’s life easier. But nothing is easier than Belong, which is the first 21st truly tech-enabled property management system. Learn how Belong’s technology creates a new landlord experience, profoundly simplifying your life letting you enjoy the financial benefits of being a landlord, free of the stress and risk. 

Grant McDonald, VP of Corporate Development at 14th Street Capital, provides a run-down on how technology is making self-managing a property much easier.  

Belong

Tamara Epelbaum

Natalie McNeal

Afton Brazzoni

Lauren Slagter

Lucas Hanft

Tamara Epelbaum

Natalie McNeal

Afton Brazzoni

Lauren Slagter

Lucas Hanft