Tenant Screening - No SSN

[Brie Schmidt]

Some of my properties are in a heavily hispanic area where traditional tenant screening is not available because of the lack of a social security numbers.  I would like to beef up our screening process but don't know how.  Any suggestions on alternative methods or things you have done in this type of situation?

[Matthew Olszak]

@Brie Schmidt No SNN applicants is about what I'd estimate to be 80% of who I rent to. I do extremely detailed Facebook revisions of everyone who's name is on the app. First I run a name search. Then I search every phone number (without dashes/spaces), since if its public it'll pull up their profile (works about 60% of the time). You'll at times get different names for the same person by searching the phone as well. Check out what the friends are like, how their home photos look, references to work, drugs/alcohol, etc. Also, check http://publicsearch1.chicagopolice.org/Arrests for arrests since 2014 in Chicago (with photos to confirm, so common names like Juan Gonzalez don't produce false-positives)

If I can't find the applicant or at least a family member, I usually decline, because in today's world SOMEONE out of all of them is on Facebook (especially the kids), so they've either given me false names, or are on "hiding-lockdown" and have a valid ssn but are trying to game the system. I also check court records in cook, dupage, will, kane, and lake counties. Any landlord names provided I check against what's on the deed/taxes/mortgage in Realist and look them up in Spokeo and/or Facebook as well to find their contact info. And I make any verification calls from a separate 773 number. Additionally, I weight heavily upon a long/established rental history. 

It sounds like a lot of work but I really only do this once all other info is verified and I would otherwise approve, plus on FB a ton of times I am able to disqualify someone QUICK when the teenage kids are throwing gang signs or they've got all sorts of Illegal photos, which happens often.