Prospective Tenant contacted Landlord's FB friends w/o telling me

[Lora H.]

Hi BPers!  This is a new one for me and I'd love some feedback.  I just moved and am trying to rent out my previous home which will give me my 2nd rental.  I have been vetting out a joint applicant couple.  I educated them that I have an application for them to fill out, I run a background/credit check via smartMove and I require 3 references from each of them, former/current Landlords preferred.  They provided me everything I have asked for, including their signed permission for me to contact their Landlords and ask anything about their rental history with them.

Last night I got a call from a friend of mine telling me that one of the applicants contacted her via Facebook asking my friend if she could tell her anything about me and her rental experience with me.  First of all, my friend has never rented from me nor do we have any idea why the applicant would make that assumption.  Secondly, my applicant never asked for any references from me or told me she was going to contact my friends.  I find this very weird and I'm a bit jaded about her doing this.  If she would have asked me I would have gladly given her names of tenants of mine, after getting their permission to contact.  I'm also disappointed because they communicated to me they appreciated my transparency about everything and yet, they couldn't give me the same respect.  I don't have anything to hide but I am protective of my friends' contact info just as they are of mine. 

How would you feel if a prospective tenant did this to you?  Would you still rent to them? 

I am planning to speak with her today.  I will be diplomatic about it and ask her why she did that, how many of my friends did she contact, etc.  But I also will tell her how I feel about it as well.  If she would like to speak to any of my other tenants that she should ask first.  Thoughts?  What would you do in this situation or has this ever happened to you?  Thanks!

[Anthony R.]

When it comes to the internet, you are the only person to blame for what is on it. ESPECIALLY when it comes to social media. 

##Hops on soapbox## 

As a professional software engineer by day (and a former police officer), I know, as you should by now, how facebook makes it money. They data-mine what you give them and they sell it to other companies. Furthermore, other companies will scrape google results for facebook information that you volunteer. No one should be providing information to these sites. Don't put your real name on there. Don't put your income, job, college, location etc on there. IF YOU DO, and you make it publically visible, be prepared to get grilled over it. Police use it to convict you. Criminals use it to steal your identity. Criminals use it to figure out your routine so they can rob your house. Companies use it to weed you out of potential candidates. Most relevantly though, anyone can use it for whatever they'd like, legal or not.

##Hops off soapbox##

To avoid this issue in the future set your facebook privacy up. You can make it so people can't find you unless they're a friend of a friend. Secondly, use a fake name on there. This is pretty common these days. I usually pick one out of a book that I like and use it. My friends get a kick out of quoting the characters and I don't have to worry about my company firing me for controversial opinions. 

Finally, send that prospective tenant a gift basket for enlightening you. Then tell them that it was also super creepy and to find some place else to live.