Joining me for this episode is Jason Waggoner, the Vice President of Marketing at ACUTRAQ. In case you aren’t familiar with it, ACUTRAQ is an application screening company that covers various types of screening.
As a result of this work, Jason is full of deep and detailed knowledge on just about every aspect of the application and screening process, dealing with HUD, dealing with fair housing, and all other related aspects of the application cycle. In this conversation, he shares that knowledge and offers great insight into these topics and more.
An example of what Jason has to offer is his balanced perspective on how to handle negative factors on an application, such as a low credit score or a criminal history. In both cases, he advises a personal rather than a kneejerk approach. For example, a potentially ideal tenant may have a low credit score simply due to medical bills, and have a perfect track record with every other bill and rent. Similarly, someone may have a criminal history for a minor crime such as marijuana possession a decade ago, in which case that alone may not indicate anything about how they would be as a tenant today.
With that said, he’s well aware of the risk factors involved for landlords. He suggests being very detailed and open with your screening criteria for reasons that he explains in the episode. When it comes to adverse action letters, he offers great advice such as denying for credit delinquencies instead of credit score.
Many of these subjects have been touchy hot-topics in the NARPM community lately, so let’s take a listen and hear what Jason has to say!