The single biggest predictor of whether a rental property makes or loses money is who you put in it. A bad tenant can cost you months of lost rent, thousands in property damage, and an eviction process that drags out far longer than most first-time landlords expect. Good tenant screening solves 90% of the problems before they start. Here’s a practical, Arkansas-specific guide to screening, what to check, how to check it, and what the law actually allows.
The 5 things every Arkansas landlord should screen for
A professional-grade tenant screening covers credit, income verification, rental history, employment verification, and a background check. Each one tells you something different. Credit shows financial responsibility patterns. Income verification confirms they can actually afford the rent (the standard rule of thumb is gross monthly income of at least 3x the rent). Rental history reveals how they treated past landlords. Employment verification confirms income stability. The background check catches eviction history and serious criminal patterns. Skip any one of these and you’ve left a gap a bad applicant can exploit.
Credit checks, what to look for
Don’t fixate on a single credit score. A 720 with a recent bankruptcy is worse than a 620 with a clean trend line. Look at the pattern: are they paying their current obligations on time? Are there active collections? Are there unpaid utility accounts (a huge red flag for rental applicants)? Most landlords set a minimum score around 600-650 for standard rentals and higher for premium properties, but always read the report, not just the number.
Income verification done right
Pay stubs alone aren’t enough, they’re easily forged. Best practice: require the two most recent pay stubs plus the most recent bank statement showing those deposits actually landing. For self-employed applicants, request two years of tax returns and the most recent three months of business bank statements. For anyone whose income isn’t easily verifiable, require a larger security deposit or a co-signer.
Rental history, call the second-to-last landlord
Here’s a trick experienced landlords use: the current landlord might give a glowing reference just to get rid of a bad tenant. The landlord before the current one has no incentive to lie. Call them. Ask about on-time payment, condition of the property at move-out, whether they’d rent to this person again, and whether there was any law enforcement involvement. The answers usually tell you everything you need to know.
Background checks and eviction records
Run a national criminal background check and a multi-state eviction search. Eviction records are the single most predictive signal, someone who’s been evicted before is statistically much more likely to be evicted again. Be careful with criminal history: federal Fair Housing guidance limits how you can use criminal records, particularly for arrests without convictions, and Arkansas follows federal law on this. As a rule, focus on convictions, look at recency, and consider the nature of the offense relative to property risk.
Arkansas legal limits every landlord should know
Federal Fair Housing Act protections apply in Arkansas, you cannot discriminate based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, or disability. You also cannot ask applicants questions that would reveal protected status (don’t ask about children, marital status, or country of origin). Arkansas does not have additional state-level protected classes beyond the federal list, but some cities have local ordinances. You can charge a reasonable application fee in Arkansas, but it must be the same for every applicant. Security deposits cannot exceed two months of rent.
The screening criteria document, your legal protection
Before you accept a single application, write down your screening criteria in a clear, consistent document: minimum credit score, minimum income multiplier, rental history requirements, eviction history rules, and how you handle criminal background. Apply that document identically to every applicant. This is your single best legal protection against a fair housing claim, it shows you made decisions based on objective criteria, not protected-class assumptions.
Why most Arkansas landlords still get screening wrong
The most common screening mistake isn’t being too lenient, it’s being inconsistent. Approving one applicant with a 620 credit score and denying another with the same score creates fair housing exposure. The second most common mistake is rushing. A vacant unit costs you roughly $40-$80 per day in most Central Arkansas markets, so the pressure to fill quickly is real, but a bad tenant costs far more than another week of vacancy.
How Chase Calhoun Real Estate handles screening
For every property we manage across Central Arkansas, we run a full screening package: tri-bureau credit report, multi-state criminal and eviction search, income verification with pay stubs plus bank statement confirmation, employment verification, and prior-landlord references going back two tenancies. We apply the same written criteria to every applicant. If you’d like to talk through screening for your own rental or hand the whole process off to a professional manager, reach out and we’ll walk you through it.
Related Resources
- Tenant rental application: for prospective renters in Central Arkansas
- Free rental analysis: find out what your property would rent for
- First-time landlord mistakes to avoid
- Conway property management | North Little Rock | Bryant | Benton
If screening fails, the next step: How to Evict a Tenant in Arkansas (Step-by-Step)
