I am brand new to renting out my room on Furnished Finder, although I have rented my room to people who are in my community for about 2 years now. I secured a renter via FF, and we had many friendly exchanges via text. She has a standard 3 months contract at a local hospital. She is supposed to move in in a couple of days.

I sent a Keycheck request to her along with a month to month lease, and it's been radio silence ever since. Should I offer to pay for the background check? I'm pretty sure I can write it off on my taxes. I'm not sure why furnished finder has it set up so it is automatically on the burden of the tenant. I know from a friend of mine that the use of leases on FF is a bit hit or miss, but I am uncomfortable renting the room without something in writing. It opens me up to a massive amount of liability and risk.

For context, this is a bedroom with a private entrance and a private bath, but it is attached to my house, and whoever lives in it will have full access to all of my belongings, my bedroom, we'll be sharing a kitchen etc. To me, it seems like a reasonable precaution to take, to background check someone, since we will more or less be living together for the next couple of months.

Have I scared her off? I do need the rent, and if she isn't going to follow through, I need to post it in some other housing forums in my city so that I can get a renter.