Do you trust fill in the blank landlord reference letters?

Question

Would you be suspicious of this  being a fake reference? I have my vacant rental home  listed on Avail.co. When a tenant completes an application, their  system automatically emails a 5 question form to  those people they listed as references.  I have one reference I am trying to follow up with by phone , but the reference won't call me back.  She gave the tenant applicants a good reference on the form. However I am a little concerned this may be a fake reference.

This home is one they had lived at 3 years and just vacated about a month ago.  But the applicant has nothing on their bank statement indicating a rent payment on the first of their last month. The applicants say they always paid rent in cash,  the rent receipts are in a box in storage, would take awhile to find.  ..

Would you insist on talking to the most recent landlord by phone?

Or would you be content with the fact that they meet my income requirements and have no evictions on the credit/ background / eviction check with TransUnion?

It is a nice well maintained house in a class D neighborhood.

How many people make a monthly rent payment of $2300 in cash???

Nathan Gesner · Answer

When I check a Landlord reference, I follow this process:

1. Verify their rental address shows on their credit check;

2. Look up the property owner of that address to confirm it matches their Landlord name;

3. Try to find the Landlord's phone number online to see if it matches what the Tenant provided me. Just a free search of someone's phone number will usually turn up a name or address, even if part of the information is masked.

Tricia O'Brien · Answer

@Nathan G, @Julie Hartman , @Michael H,  @Allan Smith

Thanks for all your great suggestions!

I did finally get to speak to the landlord reference I was pursuing . She answered all my questions on my list and gave the tenant applicant a good reference . However, when I checked with the county assessor's office I found this landlord reference,  Enrica **** , is not the legal owner.  It is owned by two other people, Joan and Martin ****,  who have owned it since 2016.

The property address does appear on the tenant applicants' credit reports  and the phone number for the landlord reference does match the phone number on a Google search for Enrica ****..

So I am assuming this is a fake landlord reference!

I'm planning to decline this application and state two reasons in an adverse action notice. First I was unable to verify the landlord reference Enrica ****.  Second one of the applicants has a current wage garnishment.  One of the qualifications on my application form is "no current wage garnishments ". Then I plan to include a copy of the credit report that shows the wage garnishment .

What do you all think?

Any suggestions?

thanks,

Tricia

Julie Hartman · Answer

We ask for more than one landlord reference and usually only believe the previous landlord not the current one possibly trying to off-load the tenant. We also do like Nathan G. said and lookup the address and owner information in public records to see if they match. If you aren't getting a good feeling, trust what your gut is telling you and move on from these applicants. We've had several applicants try to fake their background information, especially in the past year. Keep your screeing process tight.

Allan Smith · Answer

All my tenants go through the same screening process, which includes taking to landlords after a quiz question to prove they actually did own the property.

Michael H. · Answer

If you have other interested parties, I would certainly put this one at the bottom of the pile. If you wanted to verify they were paying cash, you could ask to see bank statements showing cash withdraws. Or if they are a stripper, drug dealer, or server they could be getting paid in cash. But, ya seems super sketch...

Do you trust fill in the blank landlord reference letters?

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