All Forum Posts by: Vitaliy Merkulov

 James, thanks for responding, so there is no way to find out if the person you're talking to is really their landlord? that's the trick you're using to make sure?

It's funny, I was calling a previous landlord reference that an applicant had put on their application. It was suspicious when I realized that the landlord of the applicant was deaf just like the applicant was deaf. What are the adds? I called the county to double check who the owner of the property was and found out that the owner of the property was not the person who I was calling. Do you guys catch a lot of applicants listing their "friends" as the landlord?

 Thanks for the answer, could you explain your thinking why landlord references is #2 and why credit report is not #1. I would assume most people feel that credit report is the most important.

How important is a landlord reference to you when screening tenants? How much do you value it compared to a credit report, income verification, background check?

Have you found landlord references to be very helpful for you or just a nice to have?

@Chris Vail Thanks,

Do you check if the previous addresses are legitimate? How do you know that the address that the applicant specified on the application is actually where they used to live before and that the landlord that they specified on their application is actually their previous landlord, not their friend posing for their previous landlord? Is there a tool for that?

I'm a fairly new private landlord from Sacramento, CA. I'm looking for recommendations on applicant screening tools that you use or find useful that help your tenant screening easier and faster maybe even cheeper. 

Also, what is your biggest frustration while using your tenant screening tools that you have now so I know what too avoid.

Thanks so much.

I'm a private landlord, doing the tenant screening process myself. I usually purchase a credit check online on prospect/applicant and begin to analyze their credit myself.

I know there are tools online that help you expedite the process that looks for warning signs and help you make a decision to accept or decline the prospect such as On-site.com. But when I used them, I still had to take each addresses, that the applicant submitted as their previous address, and google map/street view those addresses individually to make sure that they look legitimate.

Are there tools that you like that would help me check multiple addresses of the applicant and previous employment addresses from one place?