RentBureau and RentGrow Announce Integration of Screening Data

By Erika Schnitzer, Associate EditorWaltham, Mass.—RentBureau, the credit bureau for the multifamily industry, and RentGrow, a provider of online resident screening services, have announced that they will team to integrate their solutions. RentGrow will begin implementing RentBureau’s data this week.“For a long time, we’ve been providing our services directly to apartment companies, but we believe…

By Erika Schnitzer, Associate EditorWaltham, Mass.—RentBureau, the credit bureau for the multifamily industry, and RentGrow, a provider of online resident screening services, have announced that they will team to integrate their solutions. RentGrow will begin implementing RentBureau’s data this week.“For a long time, we’ve been providing our services directly to apartment companies, but we believe it’s important to make it easier for to get information. RentGrow aggregates the information to get the best screen. We know we can add a lot of value because we are based on rental histories,” Eric Hartz, president and CEO of RentBureau, tells MHN. “This is a win for the apartment company because now there is no guessing about whether or not they are getting the best information.”RentBureau’s comprehensive rental history data will be integrated into RentGrow’s TotalScreen resident screening solution. RentBureau’s database collects rental payment histories every 24 hours from its national network of property owners and managers, which currently includes six million residents nationwide. (Click here for information on RentBureau’s newest solution, RentConfirm.)Combining RentBureau’s proprietary rental history data with RentGrow’s TotalScreen solution will provide property management companies across the country with the highest quality, advanced screening services available, say the companies. By integrating RentBureau’s rental data, TotalScreen can reduce the risk of skips, bad checks, evictions and property damage.The two companies are separate entities, but RentBureau provide a service to RentGrow that differentiates the company’s offerings, explains Hartz.In the current economy, “with overall formations going down and losses going up, the number of applicants our clients are seeing are down, so they need every tool they can use to make sure they get people to move in and don’t let a potentially good applicant slip away,” Michael Lapsley, president and CEO of RentGrow, tells MHN.“An apartment company spends marketing dollars to get people to come into the office, and the last thing they want to do is turn someone away they don’t want to,” explains Hartz. With the integration of the two companies’ tools, this is less likely to occur.The benefits to this partnership, explains Lapsley, include “the ability to get access to renter payment histories, which historically has been a very good predictor of how someone will pay their rent in the future.” Additionally, he says, renters who have thin or no credit will have access to RentBureau data and scoring tools.Furthermore, Lapsley points out, management companies with multiple properties nationwide will have access to past residents’ rental histories, reducing the likelihood that they will lose revenue again on a resident who failed to pay rent in the past.