I used to order them from a local brick & mortar agency. But now have my tenants order their own and submit them to me with the Application. They can be ordered from Equifax, Experian or Trans Union only. Must be an original color printout, no pages missing, no xerox copies, nothing altered and must be dated within 7 days of the application. I direct them to this site, it's the only one approved by the Federal Gov't for consumers to get their free annual report from each Bureau: AnnualCreditReport No gimmicks, no sign ups, no fees, just answer security questions that only the consumer themselves would know and the report is generated and can be printed or accessed online for about two weeks. If they choose to go elsewhere, or have a membership elsewhere, that's fine, as long as it's from one of the 3 Credit Bureaus. If they don't have a PC, no problem, they can use a public library PC for free. I have them submit their own for three reasons: 1) Fraud protection(for me). Agency ordered reports show full bank account #s, full CC#s, full SS#, full loan #s. I don't need or want that much info. And I surely don't want it on hand if someone has their ID stolen. (We're small, only 3 homes, not a huge complex or anything.) When the applicant obtains their own report from site above, all pertinent numbers are blocked out except for the last 4 digits. So I can't see full bank account, SS#, etc. 2) Cost. It's free if they use the means described above. 3) Less hassle. The agency I used (and many others) have been forced to become very stringent in recent years due to ID theft. They must come inspect the office (mine's a home office), all reports must be stored in a locked safe or file that only I have access to (which they were anyway). I cannot show the consumer their credit report unless they are being declined (even tho they pay for it). I must destroy it after retaining it for one year. They have quadrupled their membership fee ($100) and started charging a $90 inspection fee annually (which essentially is them coming in and taking photos to show I've got the proper set up). So far it's working fine. I put the info on how to obtain the credit report on my apps. They fill out the app, get their report, and return all of it to me. Then I can review it all at once, check references, etc. If I lease to them I simply staple the credit report to the back of the app and keep it in their file. If not, I return it to them with a rejection letter via Certified Mail, and put in the rejection letter that their report is being returned. While we're at it, a few other quick easy screening methods I use from experience. Cell #s are not permitted for references on the App. Has to be a landline phone. (I'm amazed at how many people try to put down friends or neighbors as prior landlords due to something bad happening.) I then go to White Pages.com and put the landline number in the reverse directory and make sure it matches up to the reference's name and address (that gets fudged too). I'll also go online to local County Auditor or Assessor, do a search of prior address listed, and make sure owner's name matches owner listed on app. If not, I search out a phone # for the person who is listed on tax records as the owner and give them a call. Twice in recent years I've spoken to owners who gave me a big red flag on an applicant who they had serious issues with and for whatever reason did not go to court (therefore no record would have shown in court docket searches). In this day and age, most Counties have their court dockets online. Once I have the app with name, D.O.B. and last 4 digits of Social, I search the local docket to see if there is past history of eviction, Property Judgment, convictions for domestic disturbance issues, or other convictions that might influence renting (passing bad checks, selling drugs from a residence, etc.). If they put down they have lived in other areas I check those County dockets as well. I also check Sex Offender registries. All it costs is a little bit of my time, is very revealing, paints a pretty good picture of what kind of person the applicant is, and can save a lot of grief. ;-)

Whoa, if you get a degree in industrial arts you get to acquire carpentry textbooks along the way?!? Sweet! Kim, I've always enjoyed/appreciated your contributions; given the wisdom of trial and error that was behind them, I see why they stood out. My mom got us a couple of the Reader's Digest fixit books (have to run downstairs, one of them might be the very one you have); I like the way they are encyclopedic and detailed. I know Jane Powell but not the Small Houses books (do you mean The Not So Big stuff by Susanka, or the Small House anthologies from Fine Homebuilding?) Thanks for mentioning books; I think I might start a reference book thread for this forum. Hey Casey, THANKS for taking the bait. And you are NOT a bloody genius, you are an old house DEITY for crying out loud! Would you please start your own show on youtube? Or maybe just a house tour? Even Petch house has youtube videos. Or, do you already have a project blog and everyone knows about it but me? Actually for someone with a degree in historic preservation, I am impressed with how low-key your posts come across; they read more like an old friend who's "been there" and wants to pass along lessons learned along the way, it's really very nice and encouraging. But if you ever want to browbeat me feel free; I would take it as a compliment. To be honest if I post about something I'm thinking of doing to my house, and you don't opine, I figure one of two things is going on: 1) you're not on the forum; or 2) you're politely disapproving. Most of the time I assume it's 2 because you seem to be pretty consistent around here. But I just want to say, and I hope I speak for many, that I love love love your posts, especially when I'm searching on a problem I'm trying to solve and something from you pops up! (PS I finally got around to using that general finishes gel varnish you recommended and it was fantastic, thank you; I will post photos to the woodworking forum sometime before the next census.) Oh, and I love the way you "aged" the color tones in the new pine beadboard in your kitchen; reminds me of the pine in my grandmother's kitchen. When I was really little I used to look at the gleaming pores and think it was the closest wood could get to 24K gold.

I've watched both episodes, and will continue to watch the rest of the 7-episode series (Lisa Kudrow, one of the exec producers of the show, will be this week's episode), but I have mixed feelings. As an avid genealogist, I think the series is great in that it shows folks how fascinating genealogy can be -- how it can help you to learn more about yourself by learning about those who came before you. On the other hand, I think it does a bit of a disservice by making it appear that it's so easy to find information to go back so many generations. Sarah Jessica Parker and Emmitt Smith both have a lot of money, and can afford to just jump on a plane to head off to a totally different area of our country, not to mention another country altogether; when the vast majority of us simply don't have that option. Another sticking point is that Sarah Jessica Parker and Emmitt Smith (and the other five celebs to follow in the coming weeks) have the benefit of several professional genealogists and archivists searching for information long before they arrive in town. The information is simply handed to them. They aren't spending hours upon hours looking at rolls of microfilmed records, etc. I have a World Deluxe membership to Ancestry.com. I have access to every record they have. Plus, I'm an arbitrator for submissions to Ancestry.com - both from the World Archives Project as well as corrections/suggestions that folks submit regarding records that are already online. Yet I continually hit a total roadblock when it comes to ancestors/family in Pennsylvania, because Pennsylvania has close to nothing available online. I wish it were as easy as the show makes it appear...

I like "Morning Joe" too, wannaretire, except for the darned music they play in the background sometimes. I like Willie Geist who has a 1/2 hour program before MJ and then is on their show a lot. We get two newspapers so I get most of the news from them. In the evening we watch ABC for two reasons. I like Diane Sawyer and the main reason------Jeopardy comes on right after :-) We sleep to either HDTV, CNN or MSNBC. CNN because I hope AC360 will have James Carvell on. I'm totally in love with him!! Cynic, those "coming up next" teasers drive me crazy, too. If you notice, these days they call themselves journalists rather than reporters. I don't know if it's because it sounds fancier or because they're just reading a script that's put in front of them. They do get my appreciation when they're able to pronounce all those foreign names. Like Blagojevich. LOL!