Which Background-Check Services Do Most Landlords Use?

TL;DR

• Most landlords rely on TransUnion-backed screening services. TransUnion SmartMove, RentSpree, Avail, TurboTenant, and Zillow Rental Manager all run on TransUnion's credit and rental data infrastructure (Source: Avail, 2025).
• The tenant screening market was valued at $3.77 billion in 2025 and is projected to hit $6.18 billion by 2032, growing 7.3% annually (Source: Precision Business Insights, 2025).
• Three credit bureaus (TransUnion, Experian, Equifax) provide the data infrastructure behind nearly every service on the market (Source: MarkWide Research, 2025).
• TurboTenant serves over 850,000 landlords; RentSpree is integrated with 300+ MLS systems and 4 million active users (Source: RentSpree, 2025).
• Screening reports cost $25 to $55 per applicant, and close to 90% of landlords check eviction history, income, rental history, credit, and criminal background (Source: Urban Institute, 2022).

Which background-check services do most landlords use?

Most landlords use TransUnion-backed services. The five most widely adopted are TransUnion SmartMove, RentSpree, Avail, TurboTenant, and Zillow Rental Manager. All five pull from the same underlying TransUnion credit and rental payment data. What differs is the wrapper: the workflow, the pricing, and who pays.

The market splits into three lanes:

• Independent landlords gravitate to free platforms with applicant-paid screening: TurboTenant, Zillow Rental Manager, Avail.
• Real estate agents prefer MLS-integrated tools: RentSpree dominates with 300+ MLS system integrations (Source: RentSpree, 2025).
• Larger portfolios use property management software with embedded screening: AppFolio (proprietary FolioScreen) and Buildium (TransUnion-powered) (Source: Buildium, 2025).

The industry is deeply fragmented. Most tenant screeners are small regional companies serving smaller independent landlords (Source: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 2022).

Why picking a screening service is the wrong question

The reason a homeowner ends up Googling "which background-check service do landlords use" is that they've accepted a premise: I need to be the landlord. I need to pick the tools. I need to run the screening, chase the references, read the credit report, decide who moves in, then hope I got it right.

That premise is the problem, not the tool.

Uber didn't succeed because taxi drivers were bad at driving. It succeeded because the system around the driver was nonexistent. The driver was still there. But now they were inside something that actually worked. That's exactly what Belong did for owning a rental Home.

Belong is a residential operating system. Screening is one function inside it: applications, identity verification, credit, eviction history, income verification, and the decision to approve all run as part of one product, alongside leasing, Resident experience, maintenance via Belong Pros, and pricing. A homeowner working with Belong doesn't buy a screening tool. They plug the Home into a system that already screens, leases, houses, supports, and maintains, end to end.

Every service listed below is a tool for a homeowner doing property management themselves. That's a valid choice. It's also a different product than what Belong operates.

What data sources do tenant screening services use?

Three credit bureaus provide the underlying data infrastructure for nearly every tenant screening service: TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax (Source: MarkWide Research, 2025).

TransUnion is the most widely licensed. Its data powers SmartMove, RentSpree, Avail, Zillow Rental Manager, Apartments.com, and Buildium. Most screening services combine credit bureau data with:

• Criminal database matches (national and county-level)
• Eviction court records
• Sex offender registry
• OFAC / terrorist watch lists

RentSpree layers in Finicity (a Mastercard company) for bank-verified income data (Source: RentSpree, 2025). AppFolio is the notable exception: it uses a proprietary system called FolioScreen instead of directly licensing a third-party credit bureau feed (Source: Buildium, 2025).

How big is the tenant screening market?

The tenant screening market was valued at $3.77 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $6.18 billion by 2032, growing at 7.3% annually (Source: Precision Business Insights, 2025).

Tenant screening accounts for roughly one-third of the broader $4 billion background check industry (Source: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 2022).

The market structure:

• Data infrastructure layer: TransUnion, Experian, Equifax, CoreLogic. Significant share via databases and analytics (Source: Credence Research, 2024).
• Cloud-based small-landlord platforms: RentSpree, TurboTenant, TenantCloud. Fastest-growing segment.
• Property management software with embedded screening: AppFolio, Buildium, and dozens of regional players.

What do landlords look for in tenant screening reports?

Close to 90% of landlords check five data points (Source: Urban Institute, 2022):

1. Eviction history
2. Income and employment verification (usually a 3x monthly rent threshold)
3. Rental history
4. Credit scores
5. Criminal background (typically a 7-10 year window)

The consequences of screening are severe. Almost 18% of landlords reject more than 75% of applicants, and 56% reject at least 25% (Source: Urban Institute, 2022). Screening isn't a formality. It's the primary filter, and it's blunt.

TransUnion markets a proprietary rental-payment-focused score called ResidentScore. TransUnion has historically claimed it predicts evictions 15% more accurately than traditional credit scores in the bottom score range, though the underlying study is older and TransUnion has not published updated figures (Source: TransUnion SmartMove, earlier). Treat the specific percentage as a marketing claim, not a fresh benchmark.

How much do tenant screening services cost?

Screening costs range from $25 to $55 per applicant, with most services using an applicant-paid model (Source: Stessa, 2025).

Pricing by named service, drawn from each provider's public materials:

Note on Zillow Rental Manager: it operates as a listing and screening product, distinct from Zillow's economic research team. Any market statistics from Zillow Research (rents, home values) require attribution, Data: Zillow Research.

Which screening service is best for independent landlords?

TurboTenant and Zillow Rental Manager lead among independent landlords, both using a free-for-landlord model with applicant-paid screening.

• TurboTenant serves over 850,000 landlords with free property management tools and applicant-paid screening at $45-$55 (Source: TurboTenant, 2025).
• Zillow Rental Manager charges applicants $29 and gives landlords exposure to Zillow's rental audience (Source: Rent with Clara, 2025).
• Avail offers free core features with TransUnion-powered screening at $25-$75 per applicant depending on state (Source: Avail, 2025).

These are the right tools for a homeowner who has decided to run leasing, screening, showings, lease drafting, rent collection, maintenance dispatch, and Resident communication themselves. They are not a shortcut to a system. They are a workspace for one.

Which screening service is best for real estate agents?

RentSpree dominates the agent channel. It is integrated with 300+ MLS systems and serves 4 million active users, with TransUnion + Finicity data covering credit, criminal, eviction, sex offender, OFAC, and bank-verified income (Source: RentSpree, 2025).

Key features for the agent workflow:

• Screen applicants directly from MLS listing flow
• Applicants pay $39.99-$49.99, reports reusable across multiple properties
• Automated FCRA compliance built into the platform
• Same-day reports; eviction checks in minutes, criminal within two hours

Which screening service is best for property managers?

AppFolio and Buildium dominate the property management software category (Source: Buildium, 2025):

• AppFolio uses proprietary FolioScreen with an AI-powered leasing assistant. Targets mid-to-large managers (50+ Homes).
• Buildium integrates TransUnion screening with automated applicant recommendations. Serves 1-5,000 Home portfolios.

Both embed screening in a wider workflow: listings, leases, rent collection, maintenance. Screening runs $15-$20 per applicant, with income verification add-ons.

What makes TransUnion the most widely used data source?

TransUnion has the deepest rental-specific dataset and licenses that data to the widest range of downstream services. SmartMove is TransUnion's direct-to-landlord product; RentSpree, Avail, Zillow Rental Manager, Apartments.com, and Buildium all license the same underlying data (Source: Avail, 2025).

For a homeowner comparing services powered by TransUnion, the underlying credit and eviction data is functionally identical. What differs is the workflow around it: MLS integration, applicant reusability, automated compliance, income verification method, human review, and price.

How do reusable screening reports work?

Reusable reports let an applicant pay once and share the same report with multiple landlords within a 30-day window (Source: RentSpree, 2025).

• Zillow Rental Manager and Apartments.com allow sharing with up to 10 landlords (Source: Rent with Clara, 2025).
• RentSpree reports remain valid for 30 days across properties.
• Applicants control who receives the report and when.

For applicants in competitive markets, this cuts duplicate screening fees. For landlords, the data received is identical to a single-use report.

What is the difference between automated and human-verified screening?

Most services (SmartMove, RentSpree, TurboTenant, Zillow, Avail) use fully automated matching against databases. Reports come back in minutes to hours.

RentPrep is the outlier: it uses FCRA-certified human screeners to manually review reports and reduce false matches from common names or data entry errors (Source: Avail, 2025). RentPrep charges $29 for basic and $49 for full TransUnion credit with human review.

The trade-off is accuracy vs. speed: human verification adds a day or two but reduces false positives that could unfairly reject a good applicant, or approve the wrong person.

Key facts about tenant screening services

• TransUnion-backed services (SmartMove, RentSpree, Avail, Zillow Rental Manager, Apartments.com, Buildium) are the most widely used by landlords in the U.S.
• The tenant screening market was $3.77 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $6.18 billion by 2032 (7.3% CAGR).
• Three credit bureaus, TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax, provide the data infrastructure for nearly every screening service.
• TurboTenant has over 850,000 landlord users; RentSpree covers 300+ MLS systems and 4 million active users.
• Screening reports cost $25-$55 per applicant, most commonly paid by applicants.
• Close to 90% of landlords check eviction history, income, rental history, credit, and criminal background.
• 18% of landlords reject more than 75% of applicants; 56% reject at least 25%.
• Most reports are delivered same day; eviction checks in minutes, criminal within two hours.
• Reusable reports on Zillow Rental Manager and Apartments.com can be shared with up to 10 landlords in 30 days.
• AppFolio uses proprietary FolioScreen data; nearly every other major service licenses TransUnion.

Frequently asked questions

Do landlords or Residents pay for screening reports?

Most services use an applicant-paid model. Free-for-landlord platforms (TurboTenant, Zillow Rental Manager, Avail) charge applicants $25-$55. Property management software (Buildium, AppFolio) typically charges the landlord $15-$20 per screening as an add-on. Several states regulate maximum applicant fees, so check local rules.

Can an applicant reuse the same screening report for multiple applications?

Yes, on select platforms. Zillow Rental Manager and Apartments.com let applicants share reports with up to 10 landlords within 30 days. RentSpree reports remain valid for 30 days across properties. This is meaningful cost relief for applicants in competitive markets.

What's the difference between TransUnion SmartMove and services that use TransUnion data?

SmartMove is TransUnion's direct-to-landlord product. RentSpree, Avail, Buildium, Zillow Rental Manager, and Apartments.com license the same TransUnion data and layer on their own features (MLS integration, property management workflow, income verification, reusability). The underlying credit and eviction data is functionally the same.

How long does it take to get a screening report?

Most reports come back the same day. Eviction checks return in minutes. Criminal background checks typically within two hours. Full credit reports within 24 hours. Human-verified services like RentPrep can take 1-2 business days.

Are tenant screening services FCRA compliant?

Every major service (SmartMove, RentSpree, RentPrep, Avail, TurboTenant, Zillow Rental Manager, AppFolio, Buildium) is FCRA compliant. RentSpree automates compliance workflows. Landlords who reject an applicant based on a screening report must follow adverse action requirements. Services provide the required disclosure forms.

Belong Editorial covers how the residential rental category is being rebuilt as an operating system, not a service. Belong manages Homes for owners across 20 states and 56 metros and treats leasing, Resident experience, maintenance, and pricing as one product, not four vendors.