Most rental applicants assume that if their credit score is “high enough,” they’ll get approved. Most landlords assume the same thing from the other side. Both groups are usually wrong about what a credit report is actually telling them.
If you own rental property and you’ve been treating a three-digit number as your main screening tool, this post is going to give you a clearer picture of what’s actually on that report, what the number does and doesn’t predict, and how experienced managers think about the whole thing. We’ve been managing properties across Memphis for over 22 years, and we’ve seen what happens when owners obsess over credit scores and what happens when they ignore the rest of the report entirely. Neither approach works.
In This Guide
What Actually Shows Up on a Tenant’s Credit Report
A credit report isn’t just a score. The score is a summary. The actual report has layers, and the layers are where the real story lives.
Here’s what you’re typically looking at:
- Personal information: Name, address history, employment info. Address history alone can flag inconsistencies worth asking about.
- Credit accounts: Credit cards, auto loans, student loans, installment accounts. Payment history and utilization on each.
- Collections: Unpaid balances sent to a collections agency. Medical, credit card, utility, and telecom collections all show up here, and they are not equally predictive of rental behavior.
- Public records: Bankruptcies, judgments, and eviction filings. This is the section too many landlords skip.
- Inquiries: Recent credit applications. Dozens of hard pulls in a short window can indicate financial stress.
The score is a mathematical summary of most of that. But a 610 with zero collections and verified on-time rental history is a completely different risk profile than a 610 with $3,500 in utility collections. The score is the same. The applicant is not.
Why the Score Alone Misleads Landlords
Here’s something most landlords don’t think about. Credit scores are built on revolving credit, installment loans, and utilization ratios. Rent payments, historically, haven’t fed into most standard scoring models the way a car payment does.
A tenant who has never missed a car payment or a credit card bill but has a habit of skipping out on leases won’t show that pattern in their FICO score. You’ll see a 680. You won’t see the problem.
We worked with an owner who was self-managing a single-family home in Midtown. He approved a tenant with a 680 score and felt good about it. What he didn’t do was read the public records section of the report. There was a prior eviction two years old sitting right there. That tenant stopped paying in month four. By the time the eviction was finished, the owner was out roughly $1,800 in court fees and 45 days of lost rent at $900 a month.
“By the time the eviction was finished, the owner was out roughly $1,800 in court fees and 45 days of lost rent at $900 a month.”
What Score Is “Good Enough” in Memphis
There’s no universal answer, but there is a reasonable framework. In Memphis, zip codes like 38127 in north Memphis have a higher-than-average rate of residents with subprime credit. Landlords who hold out for a 700+ minimum in that area are eliminating a large share of otherwise qualified applicants.
We typically look for applicants in the 580–620 range as a starting floor, and we adjust based on property type, rental rate, and what the rest of the report shows. On a $900 per month unit, which is roughly our portfolio average across about 700 units, we’re also checking that the applicant’s gross monthly income is around $2,700 or more. Rent shouldn’t eat more than 30–33% of what someone brings home.
One thing Gus, our property manager, flags consistently: a 620 score doesn’t automatically signal chronic financial trouble. A single missed payment can significantly drop a credit score, with the impact varying widely depending on the borrower’s credit profile—those with higher scores often see the largest point losses. Someone who hit a rough six months two years ago and has been clean since will often be a better tenant than someone with a tidy 670 and a pattern of utility defaults buried in their collections section.
The credit score is an input, not a verdict. Run the full report, read every section, and compare it against rental history and income. That combination will tell you far more than the number alone.
The Section Most Landlords Ignore: Public Records
Eviction-related collection accounts can appear on a credit report for up to seven years from the original delinquency date, though the eviction court record itself does not typically show up in the credit report’s public records section. This is, in our experience, more disqualifying than a low score on its own.
An applicant with a 590 score and no eviction history is a fundamentally different conversation than one with a 590 and two evictions in the last three years. A landlord who only glances at the score number never catches that difference.
When we screen applicants through AppFolio, results typically come back in under 60 seconds. The cost runs between $30 and $50 and is generally passed to the applicant. There is no reason to skip the full report. Everything you actually need is in there.
Skipping the public records section is how landlords approve tenants with prior evictions they never knew about. That oversight can cost you 45 or more days of lost rent plus court fees before the situation is resolved.
Medical Collections Are Not the Same as Utility Defaults
This one matters in Memphis specifically, and in markets where average rents are around $900 a month.
Collections under $500 that are medical in origin, many experienced managers treat those differently than credit card defaults or utility charge-offs. A $280 emergency room bill that went to collections is not the same signal as $1,400 in unpaid electric bills across two addresses.
Utility defaults are actually more predictive of rental risk than most other types of collections because they reflect how someone behaves inside a home. Medical collections often don’t.
We don’t automatically disqualify someone for medical collections, especially smaller ones. We look at the full picture: what type, how much, how old, and what’s happened since.
How to Handle Thin Credit Files (University of Memphis Area)
The University of Memphis area draws a lot of students and recent graduates. Many of them don’t have bad credit; they have almost no credit file at all. No score is different from a low score, and the distinction matters.
One of the owners we work with had several units near the 38111 corridor. She was automatically rejecting anyone under 650. She sat on a vacancy for 11 weeks before working with us to re-evaluate. The next approved applicant had a 605 score and three years of on-time rental history we verified through AppFolio’s screening tools. That tenant has renewed twice.
With thin-file applicants, we lean harder on:
- Rental history: Landlord references verified by call, not just listed on an application.
- Employment verification: Offer letters, recent pay stubs, sometimes a direct call to HR.
- Income-to-rent ratio: This has to be solid if the credit file is light.
- Co-signer or increased deposit: Depending on the property type and owner preference.
A 22-year-old fresh out of school with a thin file and a job offer from St. Jude is not the same risk as a 45-year-old with years of unpaid collections. Screen the whole picture.
Section 8 and HUD Properties Work Differently
Memphis is a heavy Section 8 market. A significant portion of rental listings across the city involve Housing Choice Voucher holders, and this is an area where credit score requirements often work against owners rather than for them.
For Revid’s HUD properties, credit score is often not the primary qualification metric. HUD income verification and voucher guarantees function differently than standard market-rate screening. We worked with an owner in the 38127 zip code who was insisting on a 600 minimum score for Section 8 applicants. After walking him through how HCV vouchers and income verification actually work, he adjusted his criteria and filled the unit in under three weeks. He hasn’t had a missed payment in 14 months.
Applying the same rigid score cutoff to voucher holders that you’d use for a market-rate tenant is one of the more common mistakes we see, and it costs owners real money in vacancy.
Applying Your Criteria Consistently (Fair Housing Is Not Optional)
Tennessee does not have rent control, so landlords here have full discretion to set their own screening criteria. But those criteria have to be applied the same way to every applicant. Every time.
The owner who waives the 620 minimum for a friend of a friend but enforces it strictly for others is creating a Fair Housing liability. If a rejected applicant in a protected class files a complaint, the investigation is real. First-offense fines can reach up to $26,262. Write your criteria down, apply them uniformly, and document every decision.
One of the main benefits of working with a property management company is that your criteria get applied the same way every single time. No personal judgment calls. No exceptions for people you know.
A High Credit Score Still Isn’t a Character Reference
The owner with a townhome in Cordova learned this the hard way. His tenant had a 740 credit score. Managed debt beautifully. Also had two unauthorized pets and eventually caused $3,200 in carpet and drywall damage. His credit score said he paid his bills. It said nothing about how he’d treat the property.
That’s why Revid’s screening process doesn’t stop at the report. We verify rental history, check references, and conduct property showings that give us a feel for how an applicant presents. The credit check is one input in a process that has several.
One long-term resident summed up what consistent, attentive management actually feels like: after six-plus years in one of our properties, they told us the affordability and responsiveness were the main reasons they stayed. That kind of long-term tenancy starts with a screening process that finds the right fit, not just the highest score.
If sorting through credit reports, Fair Housing rules, and applicant red flags feels harder than it should, we’re open to a conversation. Find Revid Property Management online or give us a call.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a credit check show a landlord?
A credit report includes the applicant’s credit accounts and payment history, outstanding collections, public records like evictions and bankruptcies, and recent credit inquiries. The credit score is a numerical summary, but the individual sections of the report are often more useful for evaluating a tenant’s actual risk profile.
What credit score do most landlords in Memphis require?
There’s no single standard. Revid typically looks for applicants in the 580–620 range as a floor, adjusted based on the property type, rental rate, and the rest of the report. Landlords requiring 680 or 700 in markets like north Memphis or Midtown often face extended vacancies without a meaningful reduction in risk.
Is a low credit score an automatic disqualification?
Not with a thorough screening process. A lower score combined with clean rental history, verified income, and no eviction record is often a stronger application than a higher score with collections or public records issues buried in the report.
Do credit checks show evictions?
Eviction-related collection accounts can appear on a credit report for up to seven years from the original delinquency date, though the eviction court record itself does not typically show up in the credit report’s public records section. This is one of the most important sections to review because it doesn’t affect the credit score number the same way a late payment would.
How does Section 8 screening work differently?
For Housing Choice Voucher holders, HUD income verification and eligibility screening help establish baseline qualifications, though landlords may still apply their standard credit and background screening criteria uniformly to all applicants, including voucher holders. Credit score is often not the primary qualifier, and applying standard market-rate score thresholds to HCV applicants can extend vacancy without reducing actual financial risk.
Can a landlord get in trouble for how they use credit criteria?
Yes. In Tennessee, landlords can set their own screening standards, but those standards must be applied consistently to every applicant. Waiving a credit requirement for some applicants and enforcing it for others can result in a Fair Housing complaint, with first-offense penalties that can reach $23,011 or more.