Should I allow tenant to pay with cashier's check?

[Joshua Hollandsworth]

A potential tenant applied to stay in my boarding house. He said he works in GA and NY. He wants to open another branch in Cleveland and wants to rent one of my rooms. I assume that he travels and doesn't care to pay full-price for an apartment, considering he will be traveling a lot and he is here on business. He said he will want his luggage, BMW, and some furniture shipped here before he moves in (at HIS expense.) He said it is most convenient for him to pay with a cashier's check. I have never encountered something like this. Thoughts?

[James Wise]

Originally posted by @Joshua Hollandsworth:

A potential tenant applied to stay in my boarding house. He said he works in GA and NY. He wants to open another branch in Cleveland and wants to rent one of my rooms. I assume that he travels and doesn't care to pay full-price for an apartment, considering he will be traveling a lot and he is here on business. He said he will want his luggage, BMW, and some furniture shipped here before he moves in (at HIS expense.) He said it is most convenient for him to pay with a cashier's check. I have never encountered something like this. Thoughts?

 In my experience dealing with 1,000's of tenants & even 1,000's of potential investors the fact that you know he drives a BMW is a huge red flag. Often times scammers or those who really do not have enough money will make sure that they tell you things like "I have a BMW" in an effort to impress you & make you feel comfortable with them & their earning potential. If he was just a regular Joe looking for a place he would have likely said "I need to ship my car" instead of "I need to ship my BMW." 

Anybody who has made it a point to try to tell me how much money they have has turned out to be a total waste of time or have no money at all. Again this includes potential tenants & also potential investors. On the investor side of things we get 1,000's of inquiries at Holton-Wise. The guys who come into my office with their fancy suits & business partners saying they want to be 30 properties a month never end up buying anything. While the guys who fly into town with their wife saying they want to buy 1 to see how it goes end up buying multiple properties. Literally happens like this every time. At this point in my career as soon as someone tries to impress me with their wealth I almost immediately write them off.