You’ve got an application in your inbox. The tenant sounds great on paper, they called promptly, and they’re ready to move in fast. Then the credit report comes back and you’re staring at a number, wondering what it actually means for your bottom line.
Most owners we talk to know they should pull a credit check. Fewer know how to read what comes back. And some skip the details entirely, look at the score alone, and end up with a problem tenant they could have seen coming from a mile away.
This post breaks down exactly what a credit report shows landlords, what score is realistically worth approving, and where the common traps are — including a couple that cost Georgetown-area owners thousands before they came to us.
In This Guide
What a Credit Report Actually Contains
A credit report is not just a number. The score is almost the least useful part.
When we pull a report through AppFolio, what comes back is a full picture: credit score, complete payment history, open and closed accounts, collections, public records, eviction history, and a criminal background check, all in one place. That’s a lot of signal to work with.
Here’s what shows up in a standard credit report:
- Payment history: Every account, showing 30, 60, and 90-day late payments going back up to 7 years
- Open collections: Unpaid debts sent to collectors, including utility companies and prior landlords
- Public records: Bankruptcies, judgments, liens
- Eviction history: Filed evictions, even ones that were settled quickly or dismissed
- Credit inquiries: How often the applicant has recently applied for credit
- Account balances vs. credit limits: A signal of whether someone is overextended financially
That eviction history piece matters more than most owners realize. Eviction filings in Williamson County are public record and searchable, but a lot of third-party screening tools miss them. AppFolio’s built-in screening catches filings that were resolved before hitting collections, which is exactly the kind of thing a borderline applicant might be counting on you to miss.
What Credit Score Is Actually “Good Enough”
Let’s be real. There’s no universal magic number.
We recommend a minimum of 650 for single-family homes in the Georgetown market, with 700+ being the range where default risk drops noticeably. Applicants above 700 statistically carry lower rates of late payment and lease abandonment, and in a rental priced between $1,800 and $2,200 per month, that matters.
“We recommend a minimum of 650 for single-family homes in the Georgetown market, with 700+ being the range where default risk drops noticeably.”
A 620 score gets thrown around a lot as a common minimum. It’s too low for most single-family rentals in this market. That cutoff made more sense before Georgetown and surrounding Williamson County zip codes like 78628 and 78681 saw the population surge of the last three to four years. More applicants means more competition, and more competition means you don’t have to settle.
That said, a 700 is not a guarantee either. We’ve seen 750-score applicants leave homes with unauthorized pet damage, unauthorized occupants, and damage well beyond normal wear. Credit screening is one filter in a bigger process, not a complete answer by itself.
Why Income Verification Cannot Be Optional
The credit score and the income verification work together. Neither one alone is enough.
The standard we use is 3x monthly rent in verifiable income. On an $1,800/month rental, that means the applicant needs to show $5,400/month before you seriously consider them.
Central Texas pulls from a wide employment base. You’ve got tech workers from Round Rock and North Austin, military families near Fort Cavazos — a post that straddles Bell and Coryell counties — with Killeen zip codes like 76548 and 76549, and a growing wave of self-employed and remote workers. Income sources vary a lot out here. A self-employed applicant with inconsistent documentation is a different risk profile than a salaried W-2 employee, even if their credit scores look the same.
We had an owner managing a townhome in the 78665 zip code who pushed to approve a self-employed applicant with a 635 score. Mandy, one of our property managers, flagged the file and recommended a second look. The full AppFolio credit report revealed two open collections accounts totaling over $4,000, including one from a prior utility company. A utility collection is a specific red flag because it often signals non-payment on housing-related expenses, not just a random old debt.
That one extra look saved the owner from what could have been a messy lease term.
The 90-Day Late Payment Problem
This is the detail most owners miss. And it’s the one that comes back to bite them.
A 90-day late payment buried in the payment history section of a credit report is a major red flag, even if the applicant’s overall score is acceptable. We’ve seen applicants with a 670 score who looked fine until someone dug into the payment history and found a 90-day late on a prior rental or utility account from 18 months earlier.
One owner approved exactly that kind of applicant. Paid on time for five months, then went 45 days late twice in the same lease term. The owner faced a messy renewal decision, uncertainty about whether to re-lease to the same tenant, and the stress of a situation that a closer read of the credit report might have flagged up front.
A 90-day late payment from within the past two to three years on a rental, utility, or housing-related account is a stronger predictor of future late rent than the overall credit score. Don’t let a decent score number cause you to skip the payment history section.
The Score Minimum Has to Be in Writing Before You List
This is the fair housing trap that almost no one talks about.
Texas landlord tenant law does not give you room to make this up as you go. If you set a credit score minimum verbally but not in writing before listing your property, then change it after applications come in, you’ve created a fair housing exposure. A rejected applicant who shares a protected characteristic can file a complaint with HUD, triggering an investigation that costs far more in legal fees than a single bad tenant placement ever would have.
Rebecca, who founded Rely after working in property management since age 18, walks owners through this before any property hits the market. The minimum score, income requirements, and any additional deposit policies have to be documented and applied the same way to every applicant for that property.
We also get asked fairly regularly whether an owner can set different credit score minimums for two different properties they own. The answer is yes, but the criteria need to be consistent per property type, documented before marketing starts, and applied without exception. One set of rules for the single-family home, a separate but equally consistent set for the townhome. Any deviation mid-process is where the fair housing risk lives.
Write your credit and income criteria down before the first application comes in. Apply them identically to every applicant. No exceptions mid-process, ever.
When a Higher Deposit Is and Isn’t the Right Fix
Williamson County’s tight rental market means applicants with lower credit scores often offer a larger upfront deposit to compensate. Texas law does not cap security deposits, which gives landlords flexibility here.
But we’ve watched this play out badly enough times to say clearly: a large deposit does not neutralize a bad credit profile.
An owner we took on had inherited a tenant placed by a previous property manager, one who had waived a 590 credit score minimum. Within four months, that owner was dealing with a 60-day late situation requiring formal notice to cure. The financial exposure was close to two months of lost rent at $1,950/month before it resolved. No deposit amount would have covered the full cost of that situation, especially after accounting for the time, stress, and potential legal fees.
A larger deposit can make sense for borderline applicants who are otherwise strong: solid income, clean rental history, minor credit issues from several years back. It is not a substitute for a fundamentally risky applicant profile.
Requiring a Score That’s Too High Can Hurt You Too
Here’s the contrarian take. Pushing your minimum to 720 or above in a market where the median renter credit score in this market can vary significantly, so landlords should review current applicant data and set screening thresholds accordingly is a different kind of problem.
You’ll extend vacancy days. In a $2,000/month rental, every 30 vacant days is $2,000 gone. And if a pattern emerges where your rejected applicants disproportionately share a protected characteristic, your “high standards” become a liability rather than protection.
A documented, consistently applied standard in the 650 to 680 range with strong income verification is both defensible and practical for the Georgetown rental market. Owners who set the bar there with thorough report review tend to see better placement outcomes than those chasing a number that shrinks their qualified applicant pool significantly.
What Good Tenant Screening Actually Looks Like
Screening well means reading the full report, not just the score. Here’s what we look at on every application:
- Credit score: Is it at or above the documented minimum for this property?
- Payment history: Any 60 or 90-day lates in the past three years, especially on rental, utility, or housing-related accounts?
- Collections: Open collections, amounts, and what type of creditor. Utility and landlord collections get extra scrutiny.
- Eviction history: Any filed evictions, even dismissed ones, in Williamson County or other Texas counties?
- Income: Does the applicant meet the 3x monthly rent threshold with verifiable documentation?
- Rental history: Can prior landlords be reached? What do they actually say?
That sixth step is the one most landlords skip because it takes a phone call. It’s also the one that fills in the gaps credit reports leave open. A 750-score applicant who left a prior landlord’s property in rough shape will still have a prior landlord who remembers them.
One of the things clients mention when they switch to Rely is that the whole process feels organized and transparent. As one owner put it, the AppFolio portals make everything management-related visible, and working with the team has been smooth. That transparency applies to tenant screening too — owners see what we see and understand why decisions get made the way they do.
If the screening side of managing rental properties in Georgetown, TX has felt harder than it should, or if you’re not totally sure your current process would hold up to a fair housing question, we’re happy to talk it through.
FAQ
What does a credit check show a landlord beyond the score?
A full credit report shows payment history on every account going back up to 7 years, open and closed collections, public records like bankruptcies or judgments, filed eviction history, and credit inquiries. The score is a summary of that data, but the detail inside the report is where the real picture of applicant risk lives.
What credit score should a landlord require for a single-family rental in the Georgetown area?
We recommend a documented minimum of 650 as a baseline for most single-family homes here, with 700 or above being the range where applicant risk drops noticeably. The right number depends on the rental price point and should be set in writing before the first application comes in.
Can a landlord require a higher deposit instead of a minimum credit score?
Texas law does not cap security deposits, so landlords do have flexibility to require a larger deposit for borderline applicants. But a deposit does not offset the risk of consistent non-payment. We’ve seen owners absorb close to two months of lost rent in situations where the deposit covered only a fraction of the actual cost.
Does a tenant’s credit score tell the whole story?
No. Credit scores measure financial behavior, not everything that affects tenancy. Rental reference calls, income verification at 3x monthly rent, and a close read of the payment history section catch things a score alone doesn’t show, like a 90-day late on a prior utility account or an eviction that was settled before hitting collections.
What is the fair housing risk in setting credit score minimums?
The Fair Housing Act applies fully in Texas, which means landlords must apply the same credit criteria consistently to every applicant for the same property. Changing standards mid-process after applications arrive, or applying different standards informally, creates exposure to a HUD complaint. Document your criteria before marketing any property and apply them without exception.
Can a landlord set different credit score minimums for different properties they own?
Yes, different properties can have different documented criteria. A single-family home and a townhome can have separate standards. The requirement is that those standards are written down before the property is listed and applied identically to every applicant for that specific property, with no mid-process adjustments.
