If you own a rental property and you’ve ever approved a tenant based on gut feeling, you’re not alone. We hear this story constantly. Someone seems great in person, they hand over first month’s rent in cash, and you figure it’s a good sign. Then month four rolls around and the rent stops coming.
That scenario is exactly why understanding your tenant screening process matters before anything else. A credit check won’t catch everything, but it catches a lot. And most landlords, especially self-managing owners, aren’t reading the report the right way. This post breaks down what the report actually contains, how to interpret a score honestly, and where owners go wrong when they treat the number as the whole story.
In This Guide
What a Credit Report Actually Contains
The credit report is not just a score. It’s a history. When we pull a report on an applicant through our screening process, we’re looking at five main things: payment history, total debt load, length of credit history, types of accounts, and recent credit inquiries.
Payment history is the biggest one. It makes up roughly 35% of a FICO score and tells you whether someone has paid their bills on time over the past seven years. Missed car payments, defaulted credit cards, accounts sent to collections — that’s all in there.
“It makes up roughly 35% of a FICO score and tells you whether someone has paid their bills on time over the past seven years.”
Public records show up too. Prior eviction judgments, civil court filings, bankruptcies. Those don’t disappear just because someone seems friendly in a showing.
What Score Should You Actually Require
Most landlords in Salt Lake City set their minimum somewhere around 620. We generally look for 650 or above as a starting point across the 450 properties we manage. But here’s the thing — the score alone doesn’t tell you enough.
Applicants in the 700 to 749 range have default rates below 5% nationally. That sounds reassuring. But a 750 credit score measures debt repayment on credit cards, auto loans, and student debt. It does not measure whether someone prioritizes rent above everything else. We’ve seen 750-score applicants with six-month job gaps right before applying. We’ve approved 660-score applicants who’ve been with the same employer for three years and haven’t missed a payment on anything in four years. The score is a starting point, not a verdict.
How One Old Bill Can Tank a Good Score
This surprises a lot of owners. A single collections account under $500 — something like an old utility bill someone forgot about — can drop a credit score by 50 to 110 points. That’s enough to push a 700 score into rejection range.
One thing worth knowing: medical debt was removed from FICO score calculations in 2023. So if you’re looking at a report and you see old medical collections on there, those aren’t dragging the score down anymore. A 630 score with only old medical history in the derogatory section looks very different from a 630 score with two missed rent payments and a prior eviction.
Kaeden, one of our property managers, walked a first-time owner through exactly this situation. The applicant had a 630 score that initially looked concerning. Kaeden pulled the full report and the only negative item was a single medical collection from 2019. Income was solid, rental history was clean. They approved the applicant. That tenant has been in the property for two years with zero late payments.
The Cost of Getting It Wrong
We worked with an owner who came to us after self-managing a single-family home in Salt Lake City. He approved a tenant with a 595 score because the person seemed personable and paid the first month’s rent in cash. By month four, payments stopped. By the time the eviction was finalized, he had lost over $7,200 in rent and was looking at another $1,400 in cleaning and repair costs.
Utah eviction filings take a minimum of three to four weeks from notice to court date. On an $1,800/month unit, that’s roughly $900 to $1,200 in lost rent before you’ve even set foot in a courtroom. And that’s if everything goes smoothly. Tenants with credit scores below 580 are statistically three times more likely to miss a payment in the first six months of a lease. That’s not a hunch. That’s what the data shows.
We use Property Meld to track maintenance and tenant communication, and AppFolio handles the financial side, but no software prevents a bad placement. That starts with the screening.
Why Being Too Strict Can Cost You Money Too
This is the part most screening articles skip. If you set a hard cutoff at 700 in a market like this one, where a big chunk of renters are 25 to 34 years old with thin credit files or transplants from California with credit histories tied to a higher cost of living, you’ll sit on vacancies.
At $1,800 a month, every extra week a unit sits empty costs roughly $450. Passing on a qualified 660-score applicant to hold out for a “perfect” score can easily run you $1,800 to $3,600 in lost rent — with no guarantee anyone better applies. Salt Lake City vacancy rates have hovered around 5 to 6%, which is tight. But tight markets tempt landlords to rush, and that creates its own problems.
The goal isn’t to reject everyone below an arbitrary number. The goal is a complete picture: score, payment history, income, employment stability, and rental history together.
Fair Housing Rules That Apply to Your Screening
Utah follows the Fair Credit Reporting Act federally, so if you deny an applicant based on credit, you’re legally required to send an adverse action notice. A lot of self-managing owners skip this step and don’t realize it exposes them to legal liability.
Beyond that, Fair Housing Act protections apply even in credit screening. If you apply your credit criteria inconsistently across applicants — different thresholds for different units, or waiving your standard for some people and not others — you’re creating real exposure. A first Fair Housing violation can start at $16,000 in fines. We worked with one owner who had been setting different minimum credit score thresholds across two of his properties without realizing it. Rhino standardized the criteria across both units and closed that gap before a complaint could ever surface.
Utah law also requires landlords to keep application and screening records for at least three years in case of a Fair Housing dispute. Most self-managers don’t know that.
Don’t Skip the Co-Occupants
This is a mistake we see more than we should. An owner approves the primary applicant — strong score, good income — but skips the credit check on the other adult who’ll be living there. That second person has a prior eviction judgment. When the lease breaks down, both occupants are in the unit, and the eviction process covers both of them. That can add four to six additional weeks to the process and another $1,800 to $2,700 in losses on a property averaging our typical $1,800 monthly rate.
Every adult occupant gets screened. No exceptions.
What Rhino Actually Does Differently
We bundle the credit check cost, typically $25 to $50 per applicant, into our screening process so owners aren’t chasing reimbursements or deciding mid-application whether to cut corners.
More importantly, we read the full report. The score is a starting point. We look at payment history, public records, employment, income, and rental history as a complete profile before making a call. One client described working with our team as unusually transparent: “Everything has been very transparent and honest. They’ve taken our concerns seriously and addressed them immediately.” That’s how we want owners to feel about the screening conversation too.
Rhino was founded by a property owner, so this isn’t theory. Paul started the company after going through the process of being left with a property after a divorce, hiring a manager he felt dropped the ball, and deciding he could do it better. Sixteen years and 225 owners later, the foundation is still the same: own the communication and get the decisions right up front. You can read more on our about us page.
If You’re Self-Managing Right Now
If you’re still self-managing and pulling your own credit reports, make sure you’re reading the whole document and sending adverse action notices when required. If the phrase “adverse action notice” is new to you, that’s worth looking into before your next denial.
And if the screening piece of owning a rental property feels harder than it should, we’re open to a conversation. Take a look at our rental management services to see how we handle this end to end.
FAQ
What does a credit check show a landlord?
A credit check shows payment history, total outstanding debt, length of credit history, types of accounts, recent inquiries, and public records like evictions or bankruptcies. The credit score is a summary number, but the full report gives context that the score alone doesn’t.
What credit score do most landlords require in Salt Lake City?
Most landlords around here set a minimum somewhere around 620. Rhino looks for 650 or above as a general baseline, but we weigh the full credit report, income, employment history, and rental background together rather than relying on the score alone.
Does medical debt hurt a tenant’s credit score?
As of 2023, medical debt was removed from FICO score calculations. So a low credit score caused only by old medical collections reads very differently on a report than one caused by missed rent payments or evictions — and landlords should factor that in when reviewing applications.
Can I legally deny a tenant based on their credit score in Utah?
Yes, but you’re required under the Fair Credit Reporting Act to send the applicant an adverse action notice explaining that you denied them based on information in their credit report. Skipping this step exposes landlords to potential legal liability.
Do I need to run a credit check on every adult who will live in the unit?
Yes. Screening only the primary applicant and skipping other adult occupants is a common mistake. If the lease breaks down and multiple adults are in the unit, the eviction covers everyone — and an unscreened co-occupant with a prior eviction can complicate the process significantly.
Is a 700 credit score always a safe approval?
Not automatically. A 700 score means someone has managed debt well — credit cards, car loans, student loans. It doesn’t tell you whether they prioritize rent, how stable their employment is, or whether they’ve had a prior eviction that may not show heavily on the score. A complete picture matters more than any single number.