Let's get right down to it - You know you need a robust screening process to ensure you find the ideal renter for your investment property and want to know just what platform is the best to use.
In this post, we'll break down what both Clara & SmartMove can offer you, how much they cost, and which one is better for your rental business.
What is Clara?
Clara is a digital rental application and screening platform that provides a seamless experience for both renters and landlords. It collects, consolidates, and secures application information to help renters find their ideal homes and landlords find their ideal renters.
For landlords like yourself, Clara provides access to a pool of highly qualified and verified renters, removes the risk of fraudulent applications, and helps you find their perfect renter.
What is SmartMove?
SmartMove (TransUnion) is a tenant screening platform that gives landlords access to renter's credit, eviction, and criminal reports.
What can Clara do?
- Digital Rental Application: Clara allows you to create and share an online application with potential renters. Renters create a profile with details about previous and current rental history, previous and current employment, references, lease preferences, and more. Applications are Fair Housing Compliant and ensure you follow a consistent and fair process.
- Identity and Income Verification: Clara partners with Plaid, an advanced security and encryption tool, to verify identification documents, phone numbers, name, date of birth, ID numbers, and more. With Plaid's income verification, you can easily access employer and gross and net income data via payroll providers and documents like pay stubs, W2s, and 1099s.
- Credit History: Clara provides a TransUnion credit report summary that includes a renter's credit score, total credit lines, collections, and more.
- Background Checks: Clara conducts an eviction search, looking for past court actions, unlawful detainers, monetary judgements as well as an extensive criminal history search that searches through more than 200 million records, both at the national and state level. Each background check searches for felonies, sex offenses, wants & warrants, and more.
- Renter Friendly Process: Clara creates a seamless and secure user experience for renters that provides more consumer transparency and control.
What can SmartMove do?
- Resident Score: SmartMove provides a score built specifically to identify the likelihood of eviction better than a typical credit score.
- Credit History: SmartMove delivers credit reports direct from TransUnion®, a trusted credit reporting agency that handles millions of credit files domestically.
- Criminal Background & Eviction Checks: SmartMove also shares an eviction related proceedings report by searching through one of the largest evictions databases subject to the FCRA with millions eviction records. SmartMove searches millions of criminal records, looking at data that includes multiple state background checks, most wanted databases and Sex Offender Public Registries.
- Income Insights Report: SmartMove estimates total job and non-job related sources of income using a proprietary model that was verified against a variety of historical income data collected by independent third parties.
Clara vs. SmartMove: Pricing
- Clara is free for landlords, renters pay a $35 fee that covers the screening verification and reports.
- SmartMove packages range from $24.99/per applicant to $41.00/per applicant, depending on the information you request from a prospective renter.
Clara vs. SmartMove: Which is right for your rental business?
Before selecting a screening platform for your rentals, it is essential to research and compare the available options. While both of these services are reputable, Clara offers additional benefits with a full digital application and verified income data. By familiarizing yourself with the features and details of these companies, you can make an informed decision that not only saves you money but also benefits your rental business in the long run.
