My Rental Spot Integrates TransUnion for Comprehensive Tenant Screening

My Rental Spot today announced a strategic integration with TransUnion SmartMove, bringing full credit reports, criminal background checks, and eviction history screening directly into the platform. The integration gives property managers access to the same institutional-grade screening tools used by the largest property management companies — at no platform cost.

Tenant screening is the single most important risk management tool available to property managers. A single bad tenant can cost thousands of dollars in unpaid rent, property damage, and legal fees. Yet many independent landlords and small property managers rely on informal methods — checking references by phone, running basic credit checks, or simply trusting their gut — because professional screening has historically been expensive, complex, and disconnected from their management workflow.

TransUnion SmartMove Integration

Through the integration with TransUnion SmartMove, My Rental Spot now offers a comprehensive screening suite that includes:

• Full Credit Reports: Complete TransUnion credit reports with credit scores, payment histories, outstanding debts, collections, and financial behavior patterns that indicate a tenant's ability to pay rent consistently.
• Criminal Background Checks: National criminal database searches covering all 50 states, including felony and misdemeanor records, sex offender registry checks, and terrorist watchlist screening.
• Eviction History: Nationwide eviction records search that reveals previous eviction filings, judgments, and outcomes — the single strongest predictor of future eviction risk.
• Income Verification: Income Insights powered by TransUnion data that estimates whether a tenant's self-reported income aligns with their financial profile, without requiring pay stubs or tax returns.
• ResidentScore: TransUnion's proprietary rental-specific credit score that predicts eviction risk more accurately than a standard credit score, specifically designed for the rental housing market.

Built Into the Application Workflow

The screening integration is embedded directly into My Rental Spot's tenant application process. When a prospective tenant submits an application through a property listing, the screening is initiated automatically — the applicant authorizes the check, TransUnion processes the report, and results are delivered to the property manager's dashboard within minutes.

Property managers can set screening criteria thresholds in advance — minimum credit scores, maximum eviction counts, income-to-rent ratios — so the system can flag applications that don't meet their requirements automatically. This reduces the time spent manually reviewing reports while ensuring consistent, fair evaluation of all applicants.

"We chose TransUnion because they're the gold standard in tenant screening. SmartMove was purpose-built for the rental market, and their ResidentScore is more predictive for landlords than a generic FICO score. Our property managers now have access to the same screening power as the largest management companies in the country."

Fair Housing Compliance

My Rental Spot's screening integration includes built-in Fair Housing compliance guidance. The platform provides educational resources on permissible screening criteria, consistent application of standards, and proper adverse action notification procedures when denying an applicant based on screening results. Automated adverse action letter generation ensures that denials comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requirements.

Availability and Pricing

TransUnion screening is available now to all property managers on My Rental Spot. The platform charges no additional fees for the screening integration — screening costs are paid by the applicant as part of the application fee, following industry standard practice. Property managers can configure whether to pass the screening fee to applicants or absorb it themselves.