Renting a property is straightforward until the moment you pick the wrong tenant. Then it gets very expensive, very fast.
We’ve been managing properties in the Memphis area for 15 years, across a portfolio that now sits at around 1,200 properties. In that time, we’ve seen owners make every version of the same mistake: rushing the screening process, relying on the wrong criteria, or skipping steps entirely because an applicant seemed friendly during the showing.
This post is for rental property owners who want to understand how tenant screening actually works, what criteria matter most, and why the shortcuts that feel harmless in the short run can cost you thousands before a single lease renewal comes around.
We’re not selling a philosophy here. These are the lessons that come from managing 400 owner relationships and watching what happens when screening is done right versus when it isn’t.
“$3,300–$4,400 | avg cost of one bad placement ; 30–60 days | TN eviction timeline ; no cap | max deposit allowed under TN law ; 3x | higher eviction rate when screening is skipped”
In This Guide
Why Screening Matters More in Some Markets Than Others
Tenant screening matters everywhere, but it is not equally critical in every city.
Shelby County consistently ranks among the highest counties in the country for eviction filings per renter household. That is not an opinion or a dramatic take. It is a factual characteristic of this rental market, and it shapes how we approach every application we receive.
Tennessee’s eviction process typically runs 4 to 8 weeks from serving the initial notice to obtaining a writ of possession, assuming the tenant does not contest the case. Every day of that timeline is lost rent. On a $1,100/month unit (roughly the average rental rate in our area), that translates to $1,650 to $2,200 in lost rent per eviction, not counting court filing fees of approximately $99.50 (plus around $28.00 for sheriff service) in Shelby County, attorney fees, or the damage and turnover costs waiting on the other side.
So when we talk about screening, we’re not being cautious for the sake of it. The local numbers make the case.
Credit Score Is Not the Right Measuring Stick
Let’s be real about something that trips up a lot of owners: credit scores are a mediocre predictor of rental performance, especially in a working-class market.
Most renters looking at $1,100/month apartments in Memphis are not going to have 750+ credit scores. If that’s your cutoff, you will either sit on a vacancy for months or inadvertently exclude the vast majority of qualified renters in your price range. Neither outcome is good.
What actually predicts whether a tenant will pay rent on time? Prior rental history. Specifically, whether they paid rent reliably in their last one or two tenancies, not whether they managed a credit card responsibly.
We weight landlord references and payment history far more heavily than credit score alone. A tenant with a 620 credit score and five years of clean rental history is a much safer placement than someone with a 700 score and a prior eviction that didn’t show up on a standard credit pull.
The Rental History Check Most Owners Skip
Calling prior landlords is tedious. We know. But it is the single step that most self-managing owners skip, and it is the one that would have prevented the most expensive placements we’ve seen.
We worked with an owner who came to us after placing a tenant through a discount leasing service. That service ran a credit pull. It did not verify rental history. A proper rental history check would have surfaced a prior non-payment eviction in Shelby County. The tenant stopped paying rent in month two. Total cost to the owner: roughly $2,600 in lost rent plus over $200 in filing fees before we stepped in to manage the property through the eviction.
A credit pull costs $20 to $35. A phone call to a prior landlord costs nothing. Together, they are the foundation of a screening process that actually works.
What to Ask a Prior Landlord
When you call, don’t just ask “Was this a good tenant?” That gets you a yes or no and nothing useful. Ask instead:
- Did they pay rent on time consistently throughout the tenancy?
- Did they give proper notice before moving out?
- Were there any lease violations, complaints from neighbors, or damage beyond normal wear?
- Would you rent to them again?
That last question is the one that matters. A hesitation before a “yes” tells you more than the words.
Watch for Fake References
We’ve seen it more than a few times: an applicant lists a “prior landlord” who turns out to be a friend or family member. Cross-check the name and address. A quick search of public property records will tell you who actually owns the property they claim to have rented.
Income Verification in a Market Like Memphis
The standard rule in rental property is that a tenant should earn at least three times the monthly rent. On an average Memphis rental at $1,100/month, that means $3,300/month in gross income.
Here’s the tension: in many target neighborhoods here, average household incomes make that threshold difficult to meet. We see owners get pressure from this regularly. Some give in, accept weaker applications, and regret it. Others lower the rent slightly to attract a larger qualified pool. We generally recommend holding the standard or adjusting the price rather than lowering the bar on income verification.
Section 8 and Voucher Tenants
Housing Choice Voucher tenants make up a meaningful portion of the properties we manage in this area. Income verification works differently for these applicants. You are not looking at a pay stub from an employer. The voucher amount is confirmed through the Memphis Housing Authority or MLGW, and the structure of the voucher itself tells you what portion of rent is guaranteed.
Criminal history and rental history checks still apply equally. Holding HCV tenants to a different screening standard in either direction creates fair housing exposure. The income verification process is just different, not lighter.
Criminal Background Checks: What to Look For and What to Ignore
Running a criminal background check is standard. How you interpret the results is where most owners get into trouble.
A blanket “no criminal history” policy sounds safe. In practice, it can violate HUD guidance and create fair housing exposure, because it disproportionately excludes applicants in protected categories without being tied to actual tenancy risk.
What you’re looking for is recent, relevant criminal history. A drug possession charge from 2009 is different from a drug-related property crime from 2022. Violence against persons, property damage, or crimes that directly suggest risk to your property or neighbors are relevant. A decades-old misdemeanor is not.
Tennessee law does not prevent landlords from considering criminal history. But the decision to deny on that basis should be documented, tied to specific criteria outlined in your written screening policy, and applied consistently to every applicant.
Pet Screening: Where Owners Leave Themselves Exposed
Memphis is a warm-climate, single-family-rental-heavy market. Unauthorized pets are one of the most common issues we deal with across properties here, both during tenancy and at move-out.
The national average for pet damage claims runs $200 to $500 above the deposit collected. That’s the average. We’ve seen individual cases go well past that.
One owner we work with manages several single-family homes in the Memphis suburbs and initially pushed back on our breed restriction policy, thinking it was costing them good tenants. After one approved pet caused $900 in yard and flooring damage that exceeded the deposit collected, that owner deferred entirely to our screening and pet deposit structure going forward. The math changed their mind fast.
Breed Restrictions and Deposits
Our pet policy varies by property owner preference, but certain breeds are restricted outright based on damage history and insurance considerations. If you allow pets, charge a pet deposit. If you allow certain breeds, document that decision in writing and apply it consistently.
And if your lease doesn’t include a clause about unauthorized pets with a defined remedy, you have very little recourse when a tenant moves in a dog without telling you. That clause is not a nice-to-have.
Unauthorized Occupants: A Memphis-Specific Reality
Unauthorized occupants are one of the top recurring issues across our managed portfolio in this market. It is partly an economic reality: extended family members move in, partners move in, situations change, and tenants don’t always think to notify the landlord.
Screening alone won’t prevent this entirely. But requiring every adult over 18 who will live in the unit to apply, be screened, and appear on the lease at move-in is a best practice in this market that significantly limits the problem.
We worked with an owner who inherited a tenant from a previous management company. No background check had ever been run on anyone in that unit. Within four months, we identified three unauthorized occupants and an unreported dog. Getting the lease corrected and the situation stabilized took two months and cost the owner roughly $600 in legal review fees, plus a temporary rent concession to retain the tenant.
The lesson: occupancy standards in your lease should name every authorized occupant.
Security Deposits: What Tennessee Law Actually Allows
A lot of self-managing landlords in this state don’t realize there’s no statutory cap on security deposits in Tennessee. Unlike many states that limit deposits to one month’s rent, Tennessee law sets no cap on security deposits, so owners can collect whatever amount they and the tenant agree to.
On an average RJ-managed unit, that’s up to $2,200 sitting in a deposit account before a tenant ever moves in. That is a meaningful buffer against damage, cleaning costs, and unpaid final-month rent.
If you’ve been collecting one month’s rent as a deposit because you assumed that was the legal limit, you’ve been leaving money on the table.
How We Use Technology to Manage Applications at Scale
Processing applications across 1,200 properties without a consistent system would be chaos. We use Propertyware to manage the full application pipeline: tracking submissions, storing documentation, running screening reports, and flagging applications that need a closer look before anyone makes a placement decision.
It also creates an audit trail. If an applicant is denied, there’s a documented record of why, tied to the written screening criteria we apply to every application. That documentation matters if a fair housing complaint ever surfaces.
Jeffrey, our office manager, coordinates a lot of the administrative workflow that keeps applications moving without bottlenecks. On a property management side with 400 owner clients, the difference between a two-day turnaround and a seven-day turnaround on an application is real money for the owner waiting to fill the unit.
The “Fast Fill” Trap: Why Speed Is Not a Metric
Industry data suggests landlords who skip formal screening fill vacancies 10 to 14 days faster on average. We’ve heard self-managing owners brag about filling a property over a weekend.
What they’re not tracking is what that tenant looks like 90 days in.
Skipping thorough tenant screening is widely associated with significantly higher eviction risk — making consistent screening one of the most effective tools landlords have to reduce costly evictions. On a $1,100/month rental, waiting an extra 7 days to complete a thorough screening costs about $257 in lost rent. One bad placement costs $3,300 to $4,400, and that’s before legal fees.
The math is not close.
We worked with an owner who self-managed for two years before bringing their properties to us. They admitted they’d approved two tenants based on gut feeling after friendly showings. Both tenants had prior evictions that basic screening would have caught. One of those placements ended in a Shelby County eviction that cost the owner $1,800 in court and attorney fees, plus 45 days of lost rent at $1,100/month. That single outcome erased more than a year of management fee savings.
Writing and Applying Your Screening Criteria Consistently
Every decision you make about tenant applications should flow from a written screening policy that exists before any applications come in.
Your written policy should cover at minimum:
- Income threshold: The minimum income-to-rent ratio you require (we use 3x monthly rent)
- Credit standards: The minimum score you’ll consider and any automatic disqualifiers
- Rental history: How many years back you look and what you’re screening for
- Criminal history: Which offenses are disqualifying and over what timeframe
- Occupancy limits: Maximum number of occupants per unit based on size
- Pet policy: Which pets are allowed, deposit amounts, and any breed restrictions
Apply those criteria to every applicant in the same order, with the same documentation. That consistency is your fair housing protection, and it is the only thing standing between you and a complaint that claims your rejection was discriminatory.
What You’re Actually Paying For When You Hire a Property Manager
Our leasing fee is 50% of the first month’s rent, so roughly $550 on an average unit in our portfolio. We hear occasionally from owners who compare that to what a discount leasing service charges and wonder about the difference.
The difference is what happened to the owner who used the discount service: a tenant placed without rental history verification, a Shelby County eviction two months in, and $2,800 in total losses before we cleaned it up.
The screening infrastructure we’ve built across 15 years and 1,200 managed properties is what that fee covers. Pattern recognition across a portfolio that size tells you things a single landlord running their first three applications will never see. We know which criteria actually predict lease performance in this specific market, and which ones just feel like they should.
If you’re evaluating property management Memphis rentals options and comparing price points, look at what each company’s screening process actually includes before you sign.
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the difference between a credit check and a full tenant screening?
A credit check pulls a financial history report from a bureau like Equifax or TransUnion. A full tenant screening includes the credit check plus criminal background, prior eviction records, rental history verification (calling past landlords), and income documentation review. Many discount leasing services only run the credit check and call it screening. Those are not the same thing.
Can I reject an applicant based on criminal history in Tennessee?
Yes, but not with a blanket policy. Tennessee law does not prohibit using criminal history as a factor, but HUD guidance discourages absolute bans because they can create disparate impact on protected classes. Your policy should define which types of offenses are disqualifying, over what timeframe, and why they represent a legitimate risk. Document it. Apply it consistently.
How much can I legally collect as a security deposit in Tennessee?
Tennessee law does not set a maximum. Owners can collect any amount they and the tenant agree to, which on an average $1,100/month unit could be $2,200 or more. Many landlords collect only one month’s rent because they assume there’s a cap. There isn’t.
Does a Housing Choice Voucher count as income for screening purposes?
The voucher itself functions as a guaranteed partial rent payment from the Memphis Housing Authority. For income verification, you confirm the voucher amount and tenant portion through MHA rather than employer pay stubs. You still screen for rental history and criminal background the same way you would any other applicant. Different treatment in either direction creates fair housing risk.
How do I handle an applicant who lists a prior landlord I can’t reach?
Keep trying. Call, email, and if possible, look up the property owner in public records to confirm you have the right contact. If after reasonable effort the reference is unverifiable and rental history is a required part of your criteria, that alone can be a documented basis for a decision. An unverifiable reference is itself a data point.
Should I allow pets in my rental property?
It depends on the property and your risk tolerance, but a blanket no-pet policy eliminates a large portion of qualified applicants. A better approach is a clear written pet policy with a deposit, breed and size restrictions, and a lease clause with defined remedies for unauthorized pets. That structure gives you protection while keeping your rental accessible to a wider tenant pool.
What happens if I place a bad tenant and need to evict in Shelby County?
The Tennessee eviction process in Shelby County typically takes roughly 4 to 8 weeks from the initial notice to writ of possession. Court filing fees in Shelby County General Sessions run approximately $99.50 to $102.50, plus around $28.00 for service of process., plus any attorney fees you incur. Add that to the lost rent during the eviction period and any damage or turnover costs afterward, and a single bad placement in a $1,100/month unit can run $3,300 to $4,400 or more before you’re back to a rentable unit.
If tenant screening feels like a lot to manage on your own, especially across multiple properties or in a market as active as Memphis, we’re open to a conversation about what a more structured approach looks like. Contact us to get started, or explore our Rental Requirements and Rental Application pages to see how our process works from the applicant side. Current residents can submit a Maintenance Request or Pay Rent online. Investors/Owners can log in to their portal directly.