The rehab's done, the unit's listed, and now applications are rolling in. One bad tenant placement can cost you more than a month of vacancy — evictions, unpaid rent, property damage. The screening reports give you data. AI helps you actually read it fast and consistently, instead of eyeballing 15 applications differently at 11pm

Cost: Free plan covers up to 75 units, includes tenant screening, rent collection, and maintenance tracking; paid tiers from $15/mo (Starter) for more automation Setup time: 15 minutes to list a unit and enable screening

TenantCloud bundles credit, background, and eviction checks directly into its free tier, which is rare — most competitors charge for screening even on their entry plan. If you're managing under 75 units, this is the lowest-cost way to get standardized screening reports without juggling a separate vendor.

Cost: Free (Unlimited plan); Unlimited Plus $9/unit/mo for extras like waived ACH fees and custom leases; tenant-paid screening reports run $55/applicant Setup time: 15 minutes

Avail's screening reports (TransUnion credit, criminal, eviction, and rental history) are typically paid by the applicant, not you — useful if you want zero screening cost on your end. It's not AI-driven scoring, just automated reporting, so pair it with a prompt (below) to actually interpret the report consistently.

Cost: Free Setup time: 2 minutes

Screening reports give you raw data; AI helps you apply the same criteria to every applicant instead of gut-feeling one and nitpicking another. This also protects you legally — a documented, consistent rubric applied to every applicant is your best defense against fair housing complaints.

"Here is a tenant screening report summary: [paste credit score, income, rental history, eviction/criminal check results]. My criteria are: minimum credit score [X], income at least [X]x rent, no evictions in the past [X] years. Score this applicant against my stated criteria only, tell me pass/fail on each criterion, and flag anything unusual that falls outside standard screening data (do not make a housing decision for me — just organize the data against my stated rubric)."

A reader managing four rental units used to spend 20–30 minutes per application deciding subjectively. After setting a written rubric and running each report through the prompt above, she cut her review time to under 5 minutes per applicant and, just as important, now has a documented, consistent reason for every accept or decline — which she didn't have before.