I plan to kindly follow up with collecting.Trust but verify - I looked it up & there was a news story about itAnyone know of any resources out the there to help him in the short term with rent? 

-- We focus on verifying 2-year work history and verifying rent payments with last 2 landlords (unless in same property for 5+ years).3) MoveIn Specials: be careful with offering "free rent" as will just attract tenants with no cash.-- Try free TV or something else worth 25-50% of one month of rent.-- Or, what we do is offer the free rent AFTER & ONLY if they pay their first 3 months of rent on time to earn it.4) Lower the rent 5% every 2-4 weeks until activity picks up.5) Understand this is the worst time of year to find tenants.-- Starts picking back up end of February when this tenant pool starts getting their income tax refunds and aren't broke anymore.6) Section 8: where is the property being advertised?

I also know from experience that if you have damages from frozen pipes the insurance co. will try to 1) verify that the property was occupied and 2) verify that the heat was turned on ( for example they could request a copy of the heating bill).

What documents do they require, what credit scores do they allow, how do they verify previous rental history, etc.?

Also, you need to be prepared to screen prospective tenants yourself and verify vouchers before committing to lease.

[Milestone 2 and payment amount].Retainage: [Insert percentage, if applicable].Final payment will be made upon satisfactory completion of the work, as verified by the Contractor.4.

You could, for the purposes of verifying that you are not renting to someone who is potentially dangerous or financially incapable of shouldering the burden of being a roommate, ask them to apply through Zillow so that you can see their background check, that also gives you the opportunity to have others who might be interested in being your roommate as well, apply.

We rarely have issues, but it seems like such a small investment in time and money to take one day to verify. 

Make sure that the receipts you receive verify "Principal-only", so you never pay interest on those amounts from then on].

You can run one-off searches for phone numbers and email addresses, and they often have promos for new users.Spokeo for Professionals: While not specifically real estate-focused, it’s a reliable option for finding contact info for individual property owners, especially for one-off searches.Forewarn: This is great for verifying contact details and gives a bit more intel on leads.