How to Verify Past Landlord on application is not FAKE

[Vitaliy Merkulov]

When screening tenant, it's important to check landlord references. What's the best way to verify that the landlord listed on the application is really their past landlord and is not a fake landlord (applicant's friend, mother, or fake landlord reference service?)

I know a lot of people call the assessor's office or check the owner's information. This can become very time-consuming. 

Are you using any software or tool that allows you to check the owner of the property?

[JD Martin]

We approve based on meeting the tenants and their credit/background/criminal/eviction reports, as well as their current employment and income levels. We found that contacting past landlords was more or less a waste of time anyway - if a tenant is that marginal that I have to contact the past landlord, I need to find a different tenant. Half the landlords will lie, and the other half won't bother calling you back or even remember who you are talking about, and the professionally managed places won't give you any information at all other than maybe verifying they lived there. 

Our experience: tenants with good credit histories, more than enough income, no evictions or criminal records, and are decent human beings when you meet them, 99% of them are going to end up being excellent tenants. It is the rare tenant that has no red flags that turns into a horror story.