Qualifying New Tenants

[Beverly Mims]

My husband and I own rental property. We have 133 units and qualifying a tenant is extremely time consuming. I've read about RentPrep and see that they have actual agents who review your applicants and do the legwork as opposed to running their names through a database. My question is, do they verify references listed on the application as true owner/landlord of the present and previous addresses? We constantly have people list a friend or family member to "play" their landlord so that when I call to verify their tenancy they give them glowing reviews. I always check the county website of the property listed on application to confirm ownership and if RentPrep doesn't do this then how do they know that they are confirming references with the actual landlord?

[Stephen White]

Hey @Beverly Mims, I can answer your questions about RentPrep and how we verify our information. But I will also give you some direction on how to perform better verifications yourself, if you want to continue the screening yourself. 

Yes, we do have actual FCRA Certified Screeners that compile every report. And yes, they do make verification phone calls to landlords and employers on your behalf.

Of course, like every landlord, we run into people who lie on their rental applications. They list friends, family and anyone who will lie for them, and pose as landlords to get past the screening process. The biggest advantage that we have on our side to spot these situations is experience. We perform over 50,000 verifications per month for the past 9 years, and have literally heard EVERY story and lie you can imagine. 

Whether you use RentPrep, or do the verifications yourself, here is our "secret sauce" for spotting a scam.

The first line of defense is a simple round of questions that often catches the lies. We ask very obvious questions that every landlord should be able to answer, but most "friends" cannot. We ask to confirm the rental address, monthly rent amount, move-in/move-out dates, etc. The most common answer we get from a friend posing as a landlord who is only prepared to say the applicant was a great tenant is "I'm driving and I don't have the rental address info sitting in front of me". But as you can imagine, EVERY landlord knows their rental addresses. If you're talking to a representative from a large property management company, I get that they might not know every address off the top of their head, but a private landlord who owns a handful of properties does. And if you are calling a large property management company or a larger landlord, they likely will not verify any info over the phone anyway. Most will request a fax or email of the verification form that can be filled out, along with the proof of consent (signed rental application). 

The next line of defense is verifying the information provided on the application. By running a simple google search on the phone number or address provided is a good start for landlords performing the verifications themselves. Screening companies like RentPrep have the advantage of accessing databases that can quickly confirm the provided information, but most of the information we gather can be found by any landlord, it's just time consuming. Whether it's contacting a county assessor office to confirm property ownership, or reverse searching a phone number, it's basic research. Aside from a deeper phone number database than what's available publicly, the only thing we can access that landlords cannot is a relationship chart that shows us potential relationships between people. So by them having the same address at some point, or sharing a phone number etc., the database connects dots to suggest possible relationships. 

Like any landlord, no screening company has a magic wand that can detect false information on an application. Good old fashion leg-work and experience can certainly reduce the risks, it's just a matter of following the steps through on every single application. Hopefully this helps, let me know if I can be of any other help and I'm happy to do so.