ApproveShield Protects Class A Property from Fraudulent Applicants During Lease-Up

Background:

Our national partner is the global leader in rental housing, managing almost half a million units around the world. Ranked as #1 in the Top 50 US Apartment Mangers in 2018 by the National Multifamily Housing Council, our partner serves a wide variety of owners and investors across the real estate sector. The company is known for its innovative business model combining international experience with local market knowledge and careful staffing selection to serve each community with excellence.

Challenge:

In 2018, our partner was attempting to lease up a brand-new Class A property. Unfortunately, this highly desirable community attracted a great deal of fraudulent activity. Applicants were overstating income and using falsified or stolen social security numbers to circumvent the qualification process. Our partner's on-site team needed a dependable way to weed out these candidates and ensure a qualified resident profile to provide positive revenue growth and appreciate the property's value. Existing screening methods were very rapid, but the quality of the information was poor, allowing unqualified and fraudulent applicants to easily slip through.

Solution:

Our partner chose to invest in a more thorough screening process with ApproveShield as a full-service partner. By combining investigative background checks and near real-time data on eviction filings, ApproveShield provided a deep dive that validated every aspect of applicant information, thoroughly vetting every candidate and reliably identifying attempted fraud. Our partner's on-site team was able to focus on leasing and property operations instead of investigation, streamlining the overall workflow and providing a better experience for applicants and residents.

Outcome:

The ApproveShield Premier screening program was implemented for this Class A property in May of 2018. Eviction rates decreased significantly, with the only evictions being tenants who had not been screened through ApproveShield. By the following quarter, physical eviction and skip rates dropped to zero. The amount written off in bad debt in the six months following implementation was 55% lower than in the previous six months. Our partner is implementing the same screening solution in other challenging markets with high rates of fraud and other issues with qualifying residents.