Facebook profile AGE? (Location: Virginia)

[Barb F.]

When I've sold items on Facebook marketplace before or given things away using my Buy Nothing group, I've always checked the age of someone's profile and any public info on their profile along with evaluating the conversation to see if they pass a "vibe check". My personal rule of thumb for profile age is that if the profile was created before 2015-2016 (when the internet started to get a bit crazy with misinformation ahead of a certain presidential election), I'll generally proceed as long as they're interacting like a normal person (not a bot) and their profile looks otherwise legit. If it was created between 2015/2016 and 2019, I don't love it, and I'll generally opt to not respond if I'm having a favorable interaction with someone who has an older profile. And if the profile was created in 2020 or later, I generally assume it's fake and refuse to engage unless there's some really convincing evidence otherwise. Throughout several years of operating like this, I have not been harmed, scammed, or stolen from. This is probably resulting bias, but I feel that this general rule of thumb has served me pretty well.

How is this related to rental properties and tenant screening? I'm curious if anybody does anything similar when screening tenants. If you do, why do you think it's helpful? If you tried it and no longer do it, what made you decide to stop? If you don't do this, do you have a particular reason (such as you'd find out through a different part of your process that someone is scammy) or is it something you just never thought of incorporating into your screening?

I've just posted my first property (my former primary residence) on Facebook marketplace (thanks, Zillow, for being a jerk and locking my account for no reason). This is my first and only property, and suspect it will be my only property for at least the next few years. I'm operating from a distance and in person meetings with prospective tenants won't be possible.

I'm not sure that "age of social media profile" would indirectly fall under a protected class (such as age)? But getting a social media profile is a completely voluntary activity and there's no true age verification I'm aware of, so I think there's an argument that age of profile is not a good proxy for a person's age. I know I'm not bound by Fair Housing Laws with only 1 property, but it's something I want to be conscious of as I develop my process both for this go around and in the future.