Two applications come back at 640. If the score is where you stop, they are identical and you flip a coin. If you open the report, they are not close.
One of them has a single large charge-off from a layoff three years ago and has paid everything on time since. The other has four collections in the last eighteen months, all small, all consumer accounts. The score treats those as roughly equivalent. A landlord should not.
The Score Is a Summary of a Story You Can Just Read
Scoring models compress years of behavior into three digits, and the compression throws away exactly the thing you care about. You are not lending someone $30,000 over five years. You are asking whether a person will send you the same amount on the same day every month. That question is answered in the account detail, not the number on the cover page. The report is usually two or three pages. Read it.
Small Unpaid Collections Are the Ones Worth Noticing
This is the one most owners have backwards. A $4,000 balance from a bad stretch is easier to explain than $140 sitting unpaid at a collection agency for a cable bill. The large number tends to have a cause behind it. The small number usually does not. It reflects a habit of deciding that a bill is not worth dealing with. A few small unpaid collections, especially recent ones, tell you more about how someone handles a routine monthly obligation than almost anything else in the file.
In Illinois, Medical Debt Should Not Be on the Report at All
Since January 1, 2025, Illinois law has made it unlawful for a credit reporting agency to furnish a consumer report on an Illinois resident containing adverse information related to medical debt. This is a state statute, and it goes further than what the national bureaus do voluntarily. The practical effect is that medical collections are not a signal you should be weighing here. If you are working from older screening habits, or from national landlord advice, this is a real change and it happened recently. There is no federal equivalent. A rule that would have applied nationwide was vacated by a court in July 2025, so most of the country still sees medical debt on a credit report. Illinois does not. One narrow exception. If someone paid a medical bill with a credit card, that balance is credit card debt and shows up as ordinary revolving credit.
Recent Late Payments, Especially on Housing
A pattern of 30, 60, and 90 day lates in the last year or two is the most direct predictor in the file, because it is the same behavior you are trying to forecast. Weight recency heavily. Three lates in the last twelve months matter far more than six lates in 2021. Pay particular attention to anything housing-adjacent, a mortgage, an auto loan, a personal loan with a fixed monthly payment. When someone falls behind, they choose what to pay first. The report shows you those choices.
High Utilization Is About Cushion, Not Character
Maxed out cards are not a moral finding. They are a liquidity finding. Someone running at 90 percent of their available credit has already used up the buffer most people rely on when a car repair or a medical bill lands. If a hard month arrives, there is nothing left to absorb it except your rent payment. Utilization also moves fast, which is worth remembering. A report from six weeks ago may no longer be accurate.
The Thin File Is a Judgment Call, So Make It in Advance
Owners are split here, and both positions are reasonable. Some see no credit history as unverifiable risk. Others see a 24 year old who has never carried a balance, or someone who deliberately lives without debt, and treat provable income as enough. There is no right answer, but there is a wrong way to handle it, which is deciding case by case. Write down what you will accept in place of credit history, whether that is additional income documentation, a guarantor, or landlord references, and apply it to everyone.
Set Your Criteria Before You Pull the First Report
Everything above only helps if you are applying it the same way to every applicant. Written criteria, applied consistently and kept on file, is what turns a judgment call into a defensible decision. Two Illinois-specific points belong in that written policy. Source of income is a protected class statewide under the Illinois Human Rights Act, and in Chicago and Cook County under local ordinance. A credit standard that is applied more strictly to a voucher holder than to a market-rate applicant is a fair housing problem. And when you calculate an income ratio for a voucher holder, the tenant portion is the number to work from. Second, the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires an adverse action notice any time information in a consumer report leads to an outcome less favorable than approval on your standard terms. That includes a denial, but it also includes requiring a cosigner, raising a deposit, or asking for certified funds. The notice has to name the screening company and tell the applicant they can dispute what is in the file. Reading the report carefully is the useful part. Documenting how you read it is the part that protects you. Worth knowing while you set this up.
Domu has partnered with TransUnion, so credit, eviction, and criminal reports are now free for owners on our platform, with the applicant paying the $50 screening fee.
Disclaimer: This article is general information for Chicago-area rental property owners and is not legal advice. Tenant screening is governed by federal, Illinois, and Chicago rules that do not always align, and how they apply depends on your property, your lease, and the specific application in front of you. Consult an attorney before you set or change your screening criteria.