Nightmare Tenant Featured on Local Television and Has a Website

[Joe Splitrock]

Last night on the news there was a story about nightmare tenants George Zimmer and Jennifer Zimmer. They have been screwing landlords in Sioux Falls, Florida and possibly Chicago for years. I heard the name and realized they applied to rent a house from me back in 2013. Thankfully I didn't rent to them. On paper they looked great. Two long term house rentals at or above my house rent. Over $85K for income, no pets. They were both very nice, well dressed and well spoken. I caught them lying about multiple things on their application:

- Fake landlord phone number. I could tell it wasn't a landlord because I asked leading questions that were wrong and they agreed. Clearly someone trying to vouch for them.

- Last address didn't exist when I pulled it up on Google maps. I drove down the street and there is no house by that address number.

- Addresses on their drivers license didn't match their application addresses even though they were renewed during that time.

- Facebook posts said they were moving back from Florida, but they told me a different story. I also saw on Facebook that their son was into pot and they owned a dog that they didn't disclose on the application.

I denied them quickly and they tried to lie their way out of it. I simply told them I do not rent to people who lie on their application and hung up. Now I see on the news that they have been through 2 or 3 houses since then and have been evicted from two of them. In one house they had three dogs and several cats. The houses are filled with animal poop and pee. Owners need to remove all flooring and do thousands in repairs. Yet, people keep renting to them! There is way too much trust in Sioux Falls. These people are so bad that they have a website dedicated to all the people they have screwed. They have even posted comments on the website trying to deny it. They were JUST evicted so they are house shopping. Beware and spread the word to other landlords in Sioux Falls.

News story with camera footage of the disaster at their last house:

http://www.ksfy.com/content/news/Sioux-Falls-rental-property-destroyed-411830335.html

They are so bad they have their own website where landlords can share their stories:

http://thezimmerexperience.weebly.com/#/

In some ways I feel lucky that I dodged a bullet, but in business luck only comes to the prepared. Our screening process saved us.

[Joe Splitrock]

Originally posted by @Jeff Brower:

Can you give some examples of the leading questions that you asked when you called their 'previous landlord'? Great idea! And smart to check on facebook btw. People don't know how much the public can see when they post things.

The first thing I do when get a landlord phone reference is Google the name and phone number. If it is a management company, I find their office phone number online and call that number instead of the manager 'unverified' cell phone number. Sometimes the cell numbers show up in Google linked to the manager owner. You can find them on LinkedIn or Facebook and see they are real person.

In this case, I couldn't find the person or verify the phone number. That left me suspicious before I even called. I always assume people are lying and try to prove they are not. So I called the number and told the guy I wanted to verify information. I gave the wrong rent amount and he said, yes that was correct. I gave the wrong move-in year and he said yes that was correct. At that point it seemed he was just going to agree with whatever I said. That means either he was their landlord and wanted them out of the house or he was a friend pretending to be their landlord. I called the number later that day again and got a voice mail with a totally different name on it.