How to Actually Look Someone Up Before They Move In

A screening report gives you a summary. Sometimes you want to look at the underlying record yourself — especially in Georgia, where court records are more accessible than most people realize.

Here's what's available, what each source catches, and the rule that matters more than any of the tools.

The rule first: whatever you use, use it for every applicant, identically. Consistency is what makes screening fair and defensible. Running extra checks on some people and not others is where problems start — practically and legally.

Start with a real screening service

Before any manual searching, use an actual tenant screening product. Most rent collection platforms include one.

A proper screening report typically pulls credit, criminal history, and eviction records from sources you can't easily replicate by hand, and it does it under the framework that governs consumer reports — which matters, because there are rules about how you use that information and what you owe an applicant if you decline based on it.

Ask your platform what their report actually covers, and how far back. Coverage varies more than people assume.

Georgia court records

Georgia has a statewide portal for searching court records, and it's genuinely useful for verifying what a screening report surfaced — or catching something it didn't.

What you're looking for: dispossessory actions, which is what eviction proceedings are called in Georgia. Also any civil judgments.

What to know about reading them:

• A filing is not a judgment. Cases get filed and dismissed, settled, or decided for the tenant. Seeing a case doesn't tell you the outcome — read it.
• Names are not unique. Confirm you're looking at the right person before you conclude anything. Middle names, dates, and addresses matter here.
• Coverage isn't uniform across counties. Some jurisdictions are better represented than others, so absence of a record isn't proof of absence of history.
• Old isn't the same as recent. A dispossessory from many years ago in a different life situation is different information than one from last year.

Also worth checking: the county magistrate court where they currently live, since that's where a landlord-tenant matter would typically be filed.

Forewarn — if you have access

Forewarn is a service many real estate agents have through their brokerage or association. It's built for agents vetting prospects before meeting them, and it surfaces identity, criminal history, and property information quickly from a phone number.

Two honest caveats:

Access is usually tied to being a licensed agent, so most house hackers won't have it. If you're an agent, you may already have it and not know.

It's designed for a different purpose. It's a safety tool for agents meeting strangers at properties — not a substitute for a proper tenant screening report run under the applicable consumer reporting framework. Use it for what it is.

The verification most people skip

More valuable than any database:

Call the previous landlord. Not just the current one — the current one might want them gone and will say whatever gets that done. The previous landlord has no incentive to shade it.

Ask: did they pay on time, would you rent to them again, and how did they leave the place. Those three questions get you further than most reports.

Verify employment and income with documentation, not a stated number.

Verify identity against a government ID and confirm it matches everything you're running.

Where people get this wrong

Searching some applicants and not others. This is the big one. Pick your process, write it down, and run it identically every time.

Treating a filing as a conviction or a judgment. Read the outcome.

Matching the wrong person. Common names produce false hits.

Deciding based on something you found without following the right process. If you're declining someone based on information in a consumer report, there are requirements about what you tell them. Your screening provider can walk you through it — ask them.

Freelancing. Social media searches, informal digging, and asking around introduce information you probably shouldn't be considering and can't apply consistently. Stick to your documented process.

The process worth writing down

1. Written application, complete, from everyone
2. Government ID, verified against the application
3. Income documentation against a standard you set in advance
4. Screening report through your platform
5. Court record check for the counties where they've lived
6. Previous landlord call
7. In-person or video conversation
8. Decision based on the criteria you wrote down before you met anyone

Keep the criteria written and apply them the same way every time. That's what makes this both effective and defensible.