NJRS §45:15-16.46(b) Any person who violates any provision of this act or any person who, in an application for registration filed with the commission, makes any untrue statement of a material fact or omits to state a material fact shall be fined not less than $250, nor more than $50,000, per violation.

I spoke with the owner yesterday since I know her step dad and she was renting it out for $750 and got a ton of applicants.

I spoke with the owner yesterday since I know her step dad and she was renting it out for $750 and got a ton of applicants.

Our last project is on the first page of Google for "houses for rent" in the particular city, generating ~10k leads per month, with a strong conversion rate where the lead fills out a lengthy application and pays an application fee. 

I have completed my first investment property and I am accepting applications for tenants.  

well living in Washington is great.. beautiful place. however there is an aggressive push to implement rent controls and there is a new law in Seattle to force landlords to accept the first applicant for an apartment.

With it being later in the year, I didn't have as many applicants as I liked, and ended up dropping the rent to $825, but increased the length so that they end in springtime.  

I just had a property turn over and followed this procedure for the showings:I advertise the property and handle all calls, emails, texts on it and set up viewing appointments (I group them all within 30-45 minutes on one day)The current tenants show the property to prospective rentersWhen someone applies, they email or fax in the application and pay the application fee via PayPal (although I am now trying out Cozy for applications) and I process the applicationIf the application passes, I prepare and email over the lease for signatureWhen the lease is signed and sent back to me, I send over a payment request for the first month's rent (via Dwolla or Cozy)At the check-in, I drive to the property to check them in myself and collect the security deposit in secured funds (or use Cozy to collect it beforehand)I have been doing the above for a long time and it has worked pretty well.

The other one that fell through had a judgement filed against the homeowner right after we did the quit claim with the mortgagor and were about to close and redeem the property from the person that bought it at the sheriff sale.That judgement terminated the mortgagor's (and therefore our) ability to redeem that property.The response rate on our marketing campaigns has been extremely low; south of 1%, in fact.Our campaigns include door knocking, leaving notes on doors, as well as mailing the property and new addresses of the owners (when applicable).  

If he is legit, then he shouldnt need anything from you up front (maybe a small $100 application fee at most)Use an escrow service.