Screening Tenants Through SmartMove vs Clara: Which One is Better?

You know you need a robust and comprehensive screening process to ensure you find the ideal renter for your valuable investment property. You also want to know exactly which platform is the best to use for this purpose. In this post, we'll provide a detailed breakdown of what both Clara & SmartMove can offer you in terms of features, benefits, and overall functionality.

We'll also delve into the costs associated with each platform, providing a thorough comparison to help you make an informed decision. Ultimately, we'll help you determine which platform is better suited for your rental business, ensuring you have all the information you need to choose the best option for your specific needs.
‍

What is Clara?

Clara is a digital rental application and screening platform that provides a seamless experience for both renters and landlords. This innovative platform collects, consolidates, and secures application information to assist renters in finding their ideal homes, while also aiding landlords in identifying their ideal renters. By streamlining the rental process, Clara ensures that all necessary details are efficiently managed and safeguarded.
‍

For landlords like yourself, Clara offers significant advantages. It provides you with reports of  qualified and thoroughly verified renters, reducing the time and effort needed to find suitable candidates. Additionally, Clara effectively removes the risk of fraudulent applications, ensuring that you only interact with legitimate applicants. This thorough vetting process helps you find the perfect renter who meets your specific requirements, making the entire rental experience smoother and more reliable.
‍

‍

What is SmartMove?

SmartMove (TransUnion) is a comprehensive tenant screening platform designed to provide landlords with detailed and reliable information. This service offers landlords access to a renter's credit history, eviction records, and criminal reports, ensuring that they have all the necessary data to make informed decisions when selecting potential tenants. By utilizing SmartMove, landlords can feel more confident in their choices, knowing they have a thorough understanding of each applicant's background.
‍

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 $49 fee that covers all of the screening verification and credit and background reports.
• SmartMove packages range from $25/per applicant to $45/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 thoroughly research and compare the available options to ensure you choose the best service for your needs. While both of these services are reputable and offer valuable features, Clara stands out by providing additional benefits. Clara offers a comprehensive digital application process, which streamlines the tenant screening experience, and includes verified income data, adding an extra layer of security and reliability. By taking the time to familiarize yourself with the features and details of these companies, you can make a well-informed decision that not only saves you money but also significantly benefits your rental business in the long run. This careful consideration of the platform's capabilities and advantages will contribute to the overall efficiency and success of your rental operations.

‍