The Complete Guide to Effective Resident Screening

Every vacant site is a missed opportunity and every difficult resident is a potential liability. In manufactured housing, resident screening protects your cash flow, preserves community stability, and ensures you're onboarding residents who pay on time and respect the property. 

This guide walks through the nuts and bolts of smart resident screening, from legal compliance to things to look for in a good resident, and how new tech, like the ManageAmerica + Boom integration, is making it easier to screen faster and smarter. 

Whether you're running a single park or managing a multi-state portfolio, streamlining your screening process with the right tools is no longer a nice-to-have; it’s a must. 

The Fundamentals of Resident Screening 

Resident screening is the first line of defense against turnover, delinquency, and community disruption. It ensures residents can pay, follow rules, and stay long-term. 

In manufactured housing, the stakes are even higher. You're building a resident base that impacts community culture, financial performance, and NOI. 

Here’s what smart screening helps you do: 

• Reduce turnover by identifying stable residents upfront 

• Minimize risk by weeding out applicants with poor payment histories or legal issues 

• Protect your bottom line by ensuring residents can afford the space long-term

Think of a reliable screening system as a filter feeding your NOI. 

How to Stay Compliant When Screening Residents

 

There’s no shortcut around compliance and in the manufactured housing space, the cost of getting it wrong is too high to ignore. Fair Housing Act violations? That’s a lawsuit. Missteps with credit data? That’s an FCRA issue. And in both cases, your operations and reputation take the hit. 

When approaching resident screening you not only want to choose the right people, but you also want to do it right by staying compliant. That starts with knowing what’s legally required and making sure your team follows a consistent, documented process every single time.

Here’s what you need to keep locked in: 

• Fair Housing Act: Treat every applicant the same, every time. No exceptions. No shortcuts.  

• FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act): If you're pulling credit or background data, you’re legally required to notify the applicant and give them a chance to dispute anything inaccurate. 

• Consistency is king: Your screening criteria must be clearly documented and applied uniformly across all applicants. Any deviation can trigger compliance concerns—and potential legal action. 

  
  

Quick tip: Standardize your application workflows and use software that automatically tracks documentation and approvals. It keeps your team protected and makes audits a whole lot easier. 

Core Resident Screening Components 

Resident screening in manufactured housing plays a direct role in long-term performance from stabilizing occupancy to improving collections and maintaining community standards. It’s a key operational function that shapes the overall quality of your resident base. 

Because manufactured housing often involves long-term residents with deeper financial commitments, your screening process must go beyond a surface-level review. A structured, objective evaluation ensures you’re placing residents who meet your financial criteria, align with community expectations, and are positioned to stay long-term. 

Key Components of a Comprehensive Screening Process

• Credit history & FICO score: Evaluate payment behavior and credit usage trends, not just the numerical score. 

• Criminal background check: Screen for offenses relevant to community safety while remaining compliant with state and local laws. 

• Eviction history: Review any past evictions to identify patterns that may indicate financial instability or lease violations. 

• Employment & income verification: Confirm stable employment and verify that income meets a reliable rent-to-income ratio, typically 3:1. 

• Rental history & references: Contact prior landlords to validate rental behavior, communication, and overall reliability. 

• Debt-to-income ratio: Particularly relevant in manufactured housing, this metric helps assess whether applicants can sustainably afford housing costs. 

  
  

This structured approach ensures your team evaluates each applicant objectively and consistently, building stronger communities and minimizing risk from day one. 

Modernizing Screening: Tools & Automation 

Manual screening is time-consuming, inconsistent, and prone to human error. For manufactured housing operators, outdated workflows create friction and delay move-ins. 

Modern screening tools are designed to eliminate these bottlenecks by streamlining data entry, automating background checks, and consolidating applicant information into a centralized platform. When screening is automated and integrated into your property management system, your team can focus on decision-making instead of data wrangling. 

Benefits of automated screening tools include: 

• Time savings through instant background and credit checks 

• Improved accuracy by reducing manual data entry and errors 

• Fraud mitigation with built-in ID verification and document scanning 

• Standardized processes that ensure compliance across properties 

• Faster approvals that reduce site vacancy days and accelerate revenue 

  
  

Integrated screening platforms also provide audit trails, documentation storage, and built-in communication tools making it easier to track decisions and support residents through the application process. 

Adopting the right screening software isn’t just an operational upgrade, it’s a strategic move that increases efficiency, reduces risk, and supports sustainable growth. 

Accelerate Lead-to-Move-in with ManageAmerica + Boom 

Resident screening in manufactured housing comes with its own set of operational hurdles: complex local requirements, inconsistent data availability, time-consuming manual reviews, and an increased risk of fraud. Most generic screening tools weren’t built to handle this complexity.  

That’s why ManageAmerica and Boom partnered to build a first-of-its-kind integration, purpose-built for the manufactured housing industry. This isn’t a plug-and-play add-on. It’s a screening solution developed specifically to centralize workflows, reduce errors, and streamline approvals—so you can move in the right residents, faster.  

“No other screening integration on the market addresses the complexities of manufactured housing screening... We built this in collaboration with ManageAmerica’s 25+ years of industry expertise to raise the bar for what screening tools should deliver.” — Rob Whiting, CEO & Co-founder of Boom  

Key features of the ManageAmerica + Boom integration:  

• Customizable screening templates tailored to each community, with configurable questions, criteria, and branding  

• Automated workflows that eliminate duplicate data entry and sync applicant, site, and community data in real-time  

• Instant access to reports including credit, background, income verification, and manufactured housing-specific metrics like debt-to-income ratios and FICO scores  

• Centralized application reviews with one-click approvals and team-level permission controls  

• Fraud mitigation with three-way identity verification and document scanning  

• 24/7 applicant support provided by Boom, including dispute handling and application assistance  

  
  

“Making sound decisions around resident screening is a cornerstone to managing a healthy manufactured housing community. Our new partnership with Boom will help drive actionable insights to support profitable occupancy, streamline community workflows, and improve transparency from lead to move-in—for on-site teams and corporate users alike.” — Caitlin Pomeroy, CEO of ManageAmerica 

“This partnership is just another way we continue to deliver on our promise to unlock potential in every property,” — Caitlin Pomeroy, CEO of ManageAmerica 

Together, Boom and ManageAmerica are changing the screening standard for manufactured housing—empowering teams to move faster, reduce vacancy days, and maintain a consistent, compliant, and profitable screening process. 

Resident Screening: Best Practices for Property Managers 

A strong screening process builds stronger communities. Consistent criteria, workflows, and decisions reduce risk, improve occupancy quality, and create a repeatable system your team can trust. 

In manufactured housing, you're investing in long-term residents who directly shape the community’s culture, stability, and financial performance. 

Best practices to strengthen your screening process:

• Stay consistent: Use the same criteria and decision-making framework across all applicants to avoid bias and reduce legal risk. 

• Document everything: Keep clear records of how decisions were made, including screening reports and approval rationale. This protects your team and speeds up internal reviews. 

• Standardize workflows: Leverage software that ensures each application follows the same steps—from submission to approval—every time. 

• Use performance data: Analyze historical trends to refine your screening thresholds and criteria over time. 

• Align screening with community goals: Match your criteria to the type of resident you want to attract—whether that’s long-term stability, strong payment behavior, or shared community values. 

  
  

When screening is done right, it becomes a strategic tool for driving occupancy, improving resident satisfaction, and protecting your NOI. 

How to Make Confident Screening Decisions 

Screening is ultimately about making informed, consistent decisions. Strong screening practices give you a full picture of each applicant’s financial stability, rental history, and potential fit within your community. 

Confident decisions come from having a clear framework for evaluation, applying that framework evenly across all applicants, and using tools that surface the right information at the right time. 

Key strategies to strengthen your decision-making: 

• Weigh all screening inputs: Review credit, criminal, rental history, income verification, and references together to get a full profile of the applicant—not just one data point. 

• Handle borderline applications carefully: If an applicant meets some but not all criteria, assess whether compensating factors (such as higher income or strong references) balance the risks. 

• Use technology to guide decisions: Integrated screening tools, like ManageAmerica + Boom, make it easier to centralize data, eliminate inconsistencies, and approve or deny applicants based on objective, pre-set standards. 

  
  

When you follow a structured process and trust your data, you reduce guesswork, protect against bias, and build stronger, more stable communities. 

Improve Your Resident Screening Process 

Building a strong resident screening process is a long-term investment in your community’s stability, your operational efficiency, and your bottom line. The right screening framework helps you move faster, protect your assets, and create better resident experiences from the start. 

By modernizing your workflows, centralizing your data, and leveraging purpose-built tools like the ManageAmerica + Boom integration, you can eliminate unnecessary friction, reduce site vacancy days, and make more confident, consistent decisions. 

If you're ready to streamline your resident screening process and drive more profitable occupancy, connect with our team today to learn how ManageAmerica and Boom can help unlock the full potential of your communities. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What does a property manager look for during resident screening?

Property managers look for financial stability, rental reliability, and alignment with community standards. This includes credit history, income verification, eviction records, background checks, and landlord references—all used to assess long-term fit and reduce turnover.

How can property managers reduce fraud during the resident screening process?

Fraud can be reduced by using screening tools that verify identity, scan for document tampering, and cross-check income data. Platforms like BoomScreen and RentButter integrate these features into the workflow, helping managers spot inconsistencies before they become costly move-ins.

What tenant screening methods are best for manufactured housing?

Manufactured housing requires screening methods that account for long-term occupancy and ownership. The best methods include debt-to-income analysis, thorough reference checks, and integrated tools that centralize applications, documents, and site-level data.

How do you ensure resident screening complies with fair housing laws?

Apply the same screening criteria and process to every applicant. Use documented policies, avoid subjective decision-making, and ensure any credit or background checks follow FCRA requirements. Automated systems help maintain consistency and audit trails.

What’s included in a resident background check?

A background check typically includes a review of criminal history, eviction records, credit reports, and employment verification. In MH communities, it often includes debt-to-income ratios to evaluate affordability.

How can I screen residents faster without missing key red flags?

Use screening software that automates checks, flags inconsistencies, and consolidates reports in one place. The ManageAmerica + Boom integration speeds up the process by syncing data in real time and providing one-click access to full applicant profiles.

What is BoomScreen and how does it work with ManageAmerica?

BoomScreen is a customizable resident screening solution built for manufactured housing. When integrated with ManageAmerica, it automates the entire screening workflow—auto-generating applications, syncing resident data, verifying documents, and enabling centralized decision-making.

What is the most important criteria when evaluating a rental applicant?

Core criteria includes:

• Verifiable income (typically 3x rent)

• Stable employment

• Credit history and payment behavior

• Eviction history

• Reliable landlord references

• Debt-to-income ratio (especially for MH affordability)

How does centralized screening improve site occupancy rates?

Centralized screening shortens the lead-to-move-in cycle by eliminating delays, reducing errors, and allowing teams to review and approve applicants quickly. With fewer bottlenecks and clearer workflows, communities fill sites faster with better-fit residents.