Tenant Screening: Is it their prior landlord or best friend?

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@Michael Kiley I agree with @Steve Boianelli plan ahead of the call. Choice questions can trip up a fake landlord pretty quickly. I would add questions like how many bedrooms and bathrooms. How long have they lived there? You can even ask something not true and see if they correct your. "They tenant said it was 6 bedrooms and they really only need three which is why they are moving. Is that correct?" The tenant said they have know your for years how did you fist meet?Try also saying, "The tenant gave you as a reference, How do you know the tenant?" You could add the lie here too. The tenant said you have know each other since grade school. If they don't correct and say "No I am the landlord" you have caught them.

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Have you considered going to the property? Or you can search tax records online to see who owns the property they are renting. Also considering asking questions regarding how much they currently pay, do they pay water, electric, etc. Any landlord would have those answers immediately. If they have to think for more than 5 seconds a red flag would go up for me. I know every last detail about my properties. If someone doesn’t you know it’s a friend impersonating a landlord. Classic case of a professional tenant. Good luck

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@Michael KileyForget about checking in with the current Landlord. That's really going to be a waste of your time.What I do is ask for 6 months of Bank Statements where the rent was paid so I can see if the rent was paid on time.Basically, if they can't give me proof they paid their rent on time, I go on to the next candidate.If you even get a few checks, you can see who got paid if you really want to call the current landlord.However, doing the employment, tenant credit, eviction and background checks along with having them providing Bank Statements corroborates their story of being good, prompt paying tenants.BTW, I'm a NYC Broker/Landlord.... it is REALLY important I don't put in a bad tenant. NYC has one of the strongest pro-tenant laws. Hence why I ask for 6 months Bank Statements.It's also competitive here in NYC, so I have an advantage when considering the less than 3% NYC vacancy rate. It's a normal thing for Candidates to expect to go through hoops here for an apt. I have never had anyone that was seriously looking for an apt turn down applying for my apts when I ask for the Bank Statements. But's that's NYC. Hopefully you are in somewhat of a in demand area as well.

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I never trust prior landlord reference, if the credit, income, background checks out I accept. If there isn't eviction history it's good enough for me and if credit is good you can assume responsible person.

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I've thought about this before too and this is what I've done: I research the property tax records. Look at the name on the record, purchase price, year bought, etc. Some detail about the property the owner would surely know. Also the agent used which will show up on Zillow.I know the agent I used, purchase price, year and month as well as even the interest rate for every property I've ever bought or sold. If they stumble then they are their friend....You don't forget those kind of details unless you are incompetent....I've done this with tenants that came from a single family home as opposed to a verifiable apartment complex for the last 3 years. Works every time so far. What was your agents name when you bought? What year did you buy? What was the purchase price? Etc...

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I frickin love this site. Wow, so many ingenious tactics in this thread. Thanks! Also, I my pops taught me that the most recent landlord may have vested interest in getting the new tenant into your place, and more importantly for them, out of their place. Imagine you get a problematic tenant to voluntarily leave, would you torpedo their exit? He always liked to check the second previous landlord, for that reason.

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Just asking this question shows you're thinking outside the box. In my area the property assessor information is online, so I check to see who owns the house before I call the listed landlord. I also check to see how many other properties this same landlord owns, so I can have a casual conversation "landlord-to-landlord" being careful not to say anything discriminatory of course. Most people like to talk about themselves, so I encourage that and then listen for things that don't match.

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@Michael Kiley You got some great suggestions from the posters above. Here’s an article with some more ideas for questions you can ask to help get the info you need: Top 10 Questions to Ask a Past Landlord When Screening Applicants

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I definitely like the idea of asking a question with false information to see if the "landlord" corrects you. Thank you for all the great ideas!

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I place much higher value in work references. Many landlords and most pm’s are essentially negligent and not clued in. That said, provide false address and false duration when confirming.