In this age of identity theft I would NEVER rent to someone I have not met eye to eye. 

Remember a lease does not prevent a tenant from vacating when ever they want and the terms of the lease are identical regardless of term or M2M.

And then how would I handle verifying their identity and all that prior to signing a lease?

I was suckered by one of the first replies , which was identical to the verbiage in link below but they used another name.  

In CA they charge $100k more for the same identical plan.

yep theres so many fake paystubs, tax returns, ss cards, bank statements, proof of funds letters, employment/income 'verifiers', and lately, even faked credit identities to go with the alternate ssn/tid!

I use drivers license to confirm identity and background company confirms identify by cross referencing dob, drivers license number, social security number, and address.   

The only time they care is when they do it maliciously or with identity theft.

I am going to ask for 3 months bank statements in hard copy and i will use rentprep to do a b/g check. i already paid for a pretty thorough identity run on the husband of one of the sisters.

The legal requirements are identical, but friends are harder to fire and control.