Tenant asking if I am landlord?

[Bradley Bartlett Jr]

I have a prospective tenant that is willing to move into my first rental property sight unseen from across the country. This will be a "roommate" situation, since it is my primary residence. She has asked me the following question and I don't exactly know what it means or how to answer:

"Are you the landlord, so if you did rent me the room my rent/deposit payment wouldn’t just look like a personal transaction?"

As the owner of the property, is there a certain way I need to go about the rent/deposit payment? I would rather either cash or maybe even Venmo.

Thank you for your input!

-Bradley Bartlett Jr.

[Steve K.]

@Bradley Bartlett Jr just chiming in to encourage you to use caution when renting to someone willing to move in sight unseen from across the country. It sounds like a scam. If she wants to send you a check or anything like that, especially if it’s for a whole years rent, definitely a scam. Next step is she’ll say her uncle died and she needs to move in with her aunt, so she won’t be moving in but you can keep one months rent for the trouble but please send a check for the rest of the year back to her. Her check bounces, yours clears and you’re out the money. Lots of scams from “out of state” applicants like this. Besides that, if she’s going to be your housemate I’d recommend meeting her first and making sure it’s going to be a good fit. I dealt with a lot of stuff like this with house mates when I was house-hacking and eventually learned to really vet potential house mates well. I would never commit to anyone until I had met them and they had seen the house.