What Is an RV Index Score? Tenant Screening Scores Explained

A screening report lands in your inbox. The applicant's credit score looks fine, but there's a second number next to it labeled "RV Index," and it looks bad. Which one do you believe? And what is a good RV Index score anyway?

This is one of the murkiest corners of leasing, and the internet has made it worse rather than better. Let's separate what is actually verifiable from what gets repeated confidently and wrongly.

What the RV Index Actually Is

Start with the part almost every article on this topic gets wrong: the RV Index is not a bureau score, and its vendor does not publish it.

The best available evidence is that "RV" stands for ResidentVerify, the screening product of Entrata. The one source with genuine operational detail is a real property operator's internal knowledge center, where the RV Index documentation is filed under Entrata's screening tools. It describes the score plainly: "The RV Index Score is a risk assessment score. The calculation considers the applicant's credit score, Rent to Income, Debt to Income, and the Ratio between Positive and Negative tradelines."

We flag the attribution rather than assert it, because Entrata publishes no public documentation of the model and we could not confirm it from the vendor directly. You will also see the RV Index discussed alongside RentGrow, which is a different vendor entirely: per the CFPB's list of consumer reporting companies, "RentGrow is a wholly owned subsidiary of Yardi Systems, Inc." Owners routinely search for both because they are looking at whichever one their software happens to use. The name on your report is the thing that tells you which score you have.

What is clear either way is the shape of it: the RV Index is a composite that takes a credit score as one input, not a credit score itself.

That single sentence explains the confusion that brought most owners to this page. The RV Index is partly an affordability measure. An applicant with excellent credit who is applying for a home that eats 60 percent of their income can post a poor RV Index, because the score is telling you something the credit score never tried to: this rent is too big for this person. That is useful information, and it is not a contradiction.

One quirk worth knowing if you are weighing a cosigner or guarantor: guarantors are not folded into the combined RV Index result. The score describes your applicant, not the safety net behind them. You have to evaluate the guarantor separately.

What a Good RV Index Score Is, Honestly

Here is where we part company with most articles on this topic.

RentGrow does not publish its scoring model or its score bands. It is a proprietary model sold to property managers, not a consumer-facing product like FICO. And the third-party blogs confidently answering "what is a good RV Index score" do not agree with each other. Some describe a 0 to 100 scale where 80 is good. Others state a 350 to 850 range, which is not the RV Index at all but TransUnion's ResidentScore, borrowed and misattributed. At least one page manages to claim the 350 to 850 range and then, two paragraphs later, say an eviction drops an applicant "below 50." Both cannot be true.

So the honest answer to "what is a good RV Index score" is: read the legend on the report in front of you. Screening reports state their own bands and their own recommended actions. Your provider's documentation, not a blog post, is the authority on the number your provider produced. If you cannot find the banding, ask your screening vendor to send it in writing. That request takes one email and it is the only version of this answer that is worth anything.

If an article tells you the exact cutoff for a proprietary score that its owner does not publish, it is guessing. The number on your report means what your provider's legend says it means.

Rental Scores vs. Credit Scores: Different Questions

The broader point matters more than any single vendor's scale. A rental score and a credit score are built to predict different things.

• A FICO score runs 300 to 850 and was engineered to predict whether someone will default on loans and credit cards. Rent is not a loan.
• A rental score is engineered to predict rental outcomes: will this person get evicted, or skip out mid-lease?

TransUnion's ResidentScore, the score behind SmartMove and a number of other platforms, is the best-documented example. It runs 350 to 850, with 850 the best possible. TransUnion describes it as "explicitly engineered for rental screening" and "designed to provide a better estimation of risk to your future rental property income than a typical credit score."

TransUnion claims it identifies 15 percent more evictions and 19 percent more skips than a typical credit score. Read the fine print on that claim, because it is narrower than it sounds: the eviction figure is based on 2016 research and applies "in the bottom 20 percent score range where risk is greatest." It is a statement about the riskiest slice of applicants, not a blanket 15 percent improvement across your whole funnel. It is still a real edge. It is just not the universal claim the marketing implies.

The practical consequence: do not convert one score into the other in your head. They are different scales built from different weightings. A number that would be mediocre on a FICO scale may be normal on a rental scale, and vice versa.

The Washington Rules That Govern Your Cutoff

Whatever number you settle on, Washington decides how you may use it. RCW 59.18.257(1)(a) is strict about sequence:

"Prior to obtaining any information about a prospective tenant, the prospective landlord shall first notify the prospective tenant in writing, or by posting, of the following: (i) What types of information will be accessed to conduct the tenant screening; (ii) What criteria may result in denial of the application; (iii) If a consumer report is used, the name and address of the consumer reporting agency and the prospective tenant's rights to obtain a free copy ... and to dispute the accuracy ...; and (iv) Whether or not the landlord will accept a comprehensive reusable tenant screening report ..."

Three things follow that catch landlords out:

• Your score threshold is a criterion that may result in denial, so it belongs in your written criteria, published before you run the first report. A cutoff you never disclosed is a cutoff you should not be enforcing.
• Your fee depends on the disclosure. The statute lets you charge for a screening report "only if" you gave that notice first. Violations run up to $100 plus court costs and reasonable attorneys' fees.
• You must say whether you accept a reusable screening report. It is item (iv), and it is easy to miss.

Rejecting an applicant on a score, or approving them with conditions attached, is an adverse action that requires written notice under the same statute, and federal fair credit reporting rules apply on top. Our full walkthrough lives in how to screen tenants in Washington State.

Two Traps in the Numbers

The voucher math trap

Because the RV Index leans on rent-to-income, subsidies matter enormously. RCW 59.18.255(3) is unambiguous: "any source of income in the form of a rent voucher or subsidy must be subtracted from the total of the monthly rent prior to calculating if the income criteria have been met."

If a voucher covers $1,600 of a $2,000 rent, the applicant's rent-to-income must be measured against their $400 share. A screening tool that ran the ratio against the full $2,000 has produced a number you cannot lawfully act on. Damages here reach four and a half times the monthly rent, plus costs and fees. Know how your provider handles subsidies before you trust the composite. See can you refuse Section 8 in Washington.

The rigid-cutoff trap

Owners like a bright line because it feels objective and therefore safe. It is neither. In Giebeler v. M & B Associates, 343 F.3d 1143 (9th Cir. 2003), binding here in Washington, the court held that the Fair Housing Amendments Act required an owner to assess "individually the risk of nonpayment created by his specific proposed financial arrangement, rather than inflexibly applying" a blanket policy to a disabled applicant. A screening rule enforced mechanically, with no room for a reasonable accommodation, is a liability.

The defensible middle: a written threshold, applied to every applicant identically, documented every time, with a known process for handling accommodation requests. Consistency is your protection. Rigidity is not the same thing as consistency. Washington's protected classes are listed at RCW 49.60.222 and the list is longer than most owners expect, including citizenship or immigration status and families with children status. More in fair housing laws every Vancouver landlord must follow.

How to Actually Read a Screening Report

• Find out which score you are looking at. RV Index, ResidentScore, and raw FICO are three different animals. The vendor name on the report tells you which.
• Get the banding legend in writing from your provider and attach it to your screening criteria file.
• Read the inputs, not just the output. A weak composite driven by rent-to-income is a pricing signal. A weak one driven by negative tradelines is a behavior signal. Same number, different decisions.
• Check how subsidies were handled before relying on any income ratio.
• Never rely on the score alone. Income verification, rental history, and landlord references catch what no model does. The credit score side of the picture is only one input.
• Document the decision and serve the adverse action notice when the answer is no, or yes-with-conditions.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an RV Index score?

The RV Index is a tenant risk score produced by RentGrow, a wholly owned subsidiary of Yardi Systems. It is not a credit score. It is a composite risk assessment that combines the applicant's credit score with their rent-to-income ratio, their debt-to-income ratio, and the ratio between positive and negative tradelines on their credit file. Because it blends affordability with credit behavior, an applicant can have a solid credit score and still return a weak RV Index.

What is a good RV Index score?

There is no reliable published answer, and you should be skeptical of any article that gives you one. RentGrow does not publish its scoring model or its bands, and the third-party blogs that claim to know contradict each other: some describe a 0 to 100 scale, others repeat the 350 to 850 range that actually belongs to TransUnion's ResidentScore. The dependable approach is to read the banding legend on the report your own screening provider sends you, and to set your threshold from that.

Is a tenant screening score the same as a credit score?

No. A FICO credit score runs 300 to 850 and was built to predict default on loans and credit cards. A rental score is built to predict rental outcomes such as eviction and skips. TransUnion's ResidentScore runs 350 to 850 and, by TransUnion's own account, identifies 15 percent more evictions than a typical credit score in the bottom 20 percent score range where risk is greatest. The two scores answer different questions, so the same applicant can look strong on one and weak on the other.

What is the range of TransUnion's ResidentScore?

ResidentScore runs from 350 to 850, with 850 the best possible score. TransUnion describes it as explicitly engineered for rental screening and designed to give a better estimation of risk to future rental income than a typical credit score. Its published claims of identifying 15 percent more evictions and 19 percent more skips are based on 2016 research and are scoped to the highest-risk score band, not to every applicant.

Can a Washington landlord reject an applicant based on a screening score?

Yes, but only if you disclosed the criteria first. RCW 59.18.257(1)(a) requires that before obtaining any information about a prospective tenant, you notify them in writing of what information will be accessed, what criteria may result in denial, and the name and address of the consumer reporting agency along with their right to a free copy and to dispute it. You may charge a screening fee only if you gave that notice. Rejecting or conditioning an approval is an adverse action requiring written notice.

Should I set a hard minimum screening score?

Set a written threshold and apply it consistently, but do not make it mechanical and absolute. Rigid, inflexible screening rules create fair housing exposure. In Giebeler v. M & B Associates, the Ninth Circuit held that a landlord had to individually assess a disabled applicant's proposed financial arrangement rather than inflexibly apply a blanket policy. A documented, consistently applied standard that leaves room for a required reasonable accommodation is the defensible position.

This article is general information for Washington rental owners, not legal advice. Screening scores are proprietary products and their models and bands change without notice; confirm details with your own screening provider, and confirm current legal requirements with the statute or a qualified Washington attorney before acting.

Written by Avenir Gedarevich, Washington State Designated Broker (License #25011405) at VPMG Property Management in Vancouver, WA.