Buddy pretended to be current landlord!

[Nolan M.]

I had a seemingly nice young lady apply for one of my rentals. I did a little background check on her and her boyfriend, he had a few misdemeanors a couple years ago but nothing serious. He has a decent job and makes enough to cover the bills. The first little red flag was when she told me she was moving because her current landlord won't fix a gas leak and back up sewer line in her house. I thought it was odd, but maybe she's telling the truth. I asked for her to text me pics of her and boyfriend's licenses and paystubs and she sent them right over. I then asked for her current landlord's name and number, nothing. I call and text the next day, nothing. 

She had given me her current address so Iooked up the owner on the county records and checked out the house on Google street view just for the heck of it. As luck would have it the 7 year old Google pic had a for rent sign in the front yard with a phone number. I called and left a message yesterday. I know it was the right number because his voicemail says "hi this is Dallin from ******* mortgage company, leave a message."

 Finally today she responds, tells me she was in the hospital with her sick kid, second red flag. I ask if she still wants the house and she says she does. I tell her again I need her landlord's number and she sends it over, of course it's different from the one I had found. I called and talked to the fakest landlord of all time. It was comical! He said they always pay on time, great tenants, the house is having problems, bla bla bla. Then I tell him I'm interested in getting a mortgage with him because I know he works at ****** mortgage company! He told me he work's there "sometimes" and he's not in the office right now and he'll have to get back with me on that, yeah sure. 

I called the real landlord back and luckily he happened to pick up. We had a nice chat, turns out he owns the 4plex down the road from one of my properties. The tenants in question are two months behind on rent, imagine that! They do complain about the house but never call to schedule the landlord's contractors like he asks them to. 

Score: Trashy tenants: 0       Me: 1

Its a small victory but I'll take it :) 

[Stephen White]

We perform about 200-300 verification call per day. I can tell you a few things based on our experience

1. Verifications are NOT bullet proof but should never be skipped. 

2. It's a fairly common misconception that landlords will give a good reference for the sake of getting the bad tenant out. If anything, a landlord will decline to comment if they're having major issues. But more often than not, they want to be sure another landlord does not have to suffer like they did. Yes, there is some sense of comradery among landlords.

3. You can sniff out a friend/buddy posing as a landlord by asking some loaded questions you already have the answers to. Like what is the full rental property address. You'd be shocked how many people know what street their friends live on but don't know the house number or zip code.