Prospective tenants claiming their landlords are selling

[Rick Bassett]

As of late, there seems to be a bumper crop of prospective tenants claiming that their reason for seeking a new rental unit is that their landlord is selling the property. Yet, the number of houses coming on the market in our area doesn't seem to match the volume of these claims. Also, a good number of these prospective tenants (not all though) are currently living in hotels.

Given the number of times that we have heard this over the past 30 - 60 days, we started wondering if the real reason has more to do with the recent ending of the eviction moratorium catching up with non-paying tenants. It is difficult to know for sure as landlords weren't able to file the typical eviction paperwork with the courts over the past 16-18 months that would normally be our source of public records.

We are now considering asking for proof of the last 2 - 3 months' rent payment (their rent receipts) when these red flags come up. Is anyone else doing this? 

[Joe Splitrock]

Quote from @Rick Bassett:

As of late, there seems to be a bumper crop of prospective tenants claiming that their reason for seeking a new rental unit is that their landlord is selling the property. Yet, the number of houses coming on the market in our area doesn't seem to match the volume of these claims. Also, a good number of these prospective tenants (not all though) are currently living in hotels.

Given the number of times that we have heard this over the past 30 - 60 days, we started wondering if the real reason has more to do with the recent ending of the eviction moratorium catching up with non-paying tenants. It is difficult to know for sure as landlords weren't able to file the typical eviction paperwork with the courts over the past 16-18 months that would normally be our source of public records.

We are now considering asking for proof of the last 2 - 3 months' rent payment (their rent receipts) when these red flags come up. Is anyone else doing this? 

 I hear this from tenants and I have been able to verify the house has been sold in many cases. I think this is happening a lot right now due to high values and a hot market. Just this morning I was reading a post from an investor on BP talking about buying a property and giving notice to the existing tenants to vacate. 

However, I know there are applicants that use this to cover up the real reason they are moving. I don't see an issue asking for 2 or 3 months worth of bank statements. We used to do this years ago, before moving to higher standards on credit score. Many landlords don't evict or don't seek judgement for money owed, so you may not see it on a credit/eviction search. Of course you can also get the name of their previous landlord. Just be careful that they are not giving you a friends phone number. Larger operators are easy to verify, because their phone number can be checked on a website. 

Also keep in mind it could be that the previous landlord sold the property after getting stiffed for rent during the eviction moratorium. Many tired landlords are selling right now, so even if it was true that the property was sold, that still doesn't mean they were a good tenant. Just be careful on screening and don't worry about the "story".