I was working on cleaning up my credit due to identity fraud and was going to refinance the house and pay off the balloon payment.

By the 50% rule, you are saying that my operating expenses are $1,600 to maintain an identical unit.

They can verify their identity through their phone number (text messages, emails, ...),  another social media site (facebook, linkedin, ... etc), various forms of IDs or credit cards.

This is your best defense against damages and security deposit questions later.Just a word of warning, with the new identity theft focus, you need to have good processes in place for protecting that personal information.  

So like I said, it is all specific investment dependent.Back to the 2% rule, keep in mind that anyone who bought an investment using the 2% rule back in 2007 when interest rates were around 7.5% for non owner occupied loans and someone buying using the 2% rule last year where you could get a loan for say 4.25%, the investor buying last year would have higher cash flow even if the properties were identical because the debt service was lower.

That should have read Bryan - good one when you mis-spell the name of somebody whose name is IDENTICAL to yours :lol:

If the applicants are straw applicants or non-existent then the remaining tenants might not meet the income requirement and/or you could end up with a situation where a straw applicant has enabled criminal elements to occupy the unit.Sally, Joe and Eric apply for your unit, they pass and you rent to them.Later you find out:Sally and Joe moved in with Bob.Eric isn't a real person, he is a made up person, a stole identity basically, provided to you to pass the application screening.andYou find out that Bob is setting up a meth lab in the basement of your unit.I don't think that's ok as long as the checks clear.

My property is one of 15 identical duplexs on the same street.

Just at a macro-level, if there are two identical properties and one is in a flood zone and one isn’t...well...1.)

A house built in 2000 will almost always be valued higher than an identically configured house built in 1950.