thieving crews around Baltimore are efficient and experienced, Most will only break into a house they know to be vacant, this house doesnt appear that way from the outside. 

For example, suppose you are considering two identical properties that rent for the same amount (yes, this is an over simplified and contrived example!).

Either way, to weigh in on your quest for information, Hoover and Gardendale are going to be almost identical to Homewood and Vestavia... especially Hoover as it is in the same Over The Mountain area of town.

I am going to sell that boat in the driveway.. or back in the day you had the real Thieves the mod companies that would blanket the country ripping people off for 1 to 2k and promise help them but really do nothing but help them lose the house.. most based in FLA for obvious reasons. ( judgment proof state).So to be successful at this I finally learned I only went to homes were the sale was within 1 to 3 days.. at that point they realize they need to deal with me.. and most of my competitors did not have real cash they were newbie wanna bee's who needed to wholesale or use a HML.. so that knocked down the competition plus they did not have the connections at the title co I had were I could get title done on the phone in real time. so I knew exactly were I stood.. and then could get 20 to 50k cashiers check and run a courier in person up to Seattle to northwest trustee services and redeem the day before the auction. 

@John Rooster , there are a lot of homes available for rent that no one knows about because landlords and property management companies try to keep copper thieves from finding out that they are empty.

For example, if there's a nice 600sf 1bed/1bath cottage on 0.5 acres, with no restrictions, what's a way to measure this vs. an identical piece of land on the same street with a house of similar construction/quality but only it's 2bed/2bath and 1800sf?

(Identity theft?)

My questions are as follows: how do I verify their identity?

I just wanted to ensure that the OP considered the differences; Mitch is correct that from a tax perspective, they can be identical, but from a management perspective, they are very different beasts...

A thorough background report will verify the applicant’s identity (Social Security number, past/current addresses), as well as search the applicant’s background for their:You can get a copy of his book at this link:https://get.biggerpockets.com/rentalbook/If you have any questions about screening tenants you can always ask our screeners via LiveChat at RentPrep.Good luck!