I have not heard of the fake reference services (or knowingly come across one) but I feel that when you are looking at their entire screening (current and past landlord, employment verification, credit checks, background checks) somethings would not jive with the fake stellar rental reference and throw up a flag to investigate further.

Sure the returns aren't stellar but lower risk lower return right?

Hi guys,It's been a few years since I had to look for a new renter, I'm strongly considering a couple, one make 45K, the other 60K, both with stellar credit reports (rent is $1,325).

I thought the practice was illegal, but from what I can tell it is just that it would be illegal to demand the entire year's rent up front, but ok if they offer it.So far, in my limited experience, it has been the parents of college kids who offer this, and occasionally someone with less than stellar rental history who wants to dangle the carrot of a whole year's rent in front of me to entice me to look past their past.Kelly

We pretty much got everything we wanted in a tenant.At minimum get them to provide a co-signer with STELLAR credit.  

Unlikely, they all graduated and have stellar careers.Not everything is black and white and if everything works with the tenant but a small stain in their history, don't completely block them out because of it.My two cents,-Sean

If these areas are stellar, the incident may have been an unusual occurrence. 

This is an added pitch to sell our tenants on the payment system, since the bulk of them have less than stellar credit. 

This is where doing a stellar background check on the front end is so worth it!!

I did this once in order to get a stellar tenant and it worked out well.