I had a couple come by this weekend to look at one of my rentals. They seemed very nice people, were very respectful. They wanted to fill in an application and went to the ATM to withdraw cash. The husband called me from the ATM and said he wanted me to know something about his past before he submitted his application. He said he had a drug charge on his record from over 3 years ago. Everything else about their application looks good. I have called the previous landlord and the landlord has good references for them. They have always paid the rent on time and no issues. The husband's employer also has good things to say about him. The husband told me that he regrets the drug charge and has not had any issues since he and his wife met and they have two kids (2 and 1 years old). They have both been very respectful and seem nice people. When he submitted his application he told me how much he appreciates me giving him a chance. They are moving from their old place to be in a better neighborhood and have a bigger place for the family. I have a good gut feeling about it, but wanted to see what you guys thought. Would you automatically disqualify someone because of this or would you consider if they have started their life fresh? Started a family, found a new job, etc.?

MAX! I am surprised you are still even considering this person! He is lying! He had a friend pretend to be his landlord and another friend pretend to be his employer! This happened to a friend of mine, the first month's rent check bounced and it was all down hill from there! Run, don't walk away, why would you even call and ask him to explain? You know the old saying, Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. Having said that, I am dying to hear how it turns out, keep us posted! Good luck! Linda PS I am a native NW suburbaner!

I learned this one on BP - when you call a previous landlord, say that so and so applied to rent a property from you, and how do you know so and so? The person might easily get rattled, not knowing if they're supposed to be the landlord, the employer, the reference, etc. When I verify with a previous landlord, I do what Max does and check the tax records first. I also ask the landlord (once I am fairly sure they are the landlord) why the tenant is moving. Sometimes the tenant gives a different reason. Charles's idea is great too, try to verify a deliberately wrong piece of information and see what response you get. As for the employer, I not only call the supervisor's direct number that the tenant has given me, I call the company's main office number and ask for that supervisor. Despite all your best efforts, sometimes you get a bad tenant that slips through. Or a very good one. I have a fairly new tenant (3 months now) who is a self employed office cleaner. She had no pay stubs to show me, but had no problem giving me copies of her last 2 year's tax returns. She also said she sometimes gets paid in cash. Her adult daughter is living with her and she has a part time job and goes to college, and she provided her pay stubs. I was leery at first, but she had good references and she followed through with everything quickly. I took a chance, and so far it's worked out well. Sometimes being a landlord is just a crapshoot.

So I spoke with the applicant this morning and this is how the conversation went: Me: "Hey, so we have a problem. I called your employer to confirm your employment and they said nobody with your or your supervisor's name worked there. Can you explain what's going on with that?" Applicant: "That's strange, I work there. Who did you speak with?" Me: "You said you work night shift, so I spoke with the manager on the night shift, but he didn't recognize your name." Applicant: "Hey, man, I am just an honest, hard-working guy who's trying to find a good place to live for his family. I pay my rent on time and create no trouble." Me: "Believe me, I want you to have this place, but I am going to verify every single thing you wrote on that application and if you are unable to prove even one thing, you won't be getting the place. Now, call your employer to sort this out and then let me know once it's sorted out. I will then call your employer directly to confirm. If you lied on your application, don't bother to call me." I haven't heard back from him. Before this conversation, he was calling me 3-4 times a day to follow up. Another lesson I learned from this experience: Before I run an applicant's information through the tenant screening service, I call every single reference on the application to verify. If something doesn't make sense, I deny their application and keep the application money. From this experience, I ended up keeping $50 for two applications. I lost my time on the application, but at least I didn't need to use the tenant screening service. So for me, before I proceed to the tenant screening service, everything on the application must make sense.

Gotta agree with Linda. He lied before even renting your property. This is a future headache waiting to happen. I would not have denied him from the past drug conviction, but would have quickly denied him with the shenanigans he is now pulling. That said, one trick one of PM's uses is to leave out 1 piece of paper and show up unannounced to their current residence to have them sign it. Then you can quickly see how they live and if their residency story checks out. BTW I fully applaud you with the due diligence you are taking.

At this point, you probably know all you need to know about this applicant. I am all for giving folks a 2nd chance. Absolutely. But his info about the owner and the employer is beyond questionable. Can't imagine how he can explain this away. Instead of having your wife call the alleged owner pretending to be a renter, have someone call from another city so caller ID doesn't throw anything off. "Unknown caller" and "blocked call" won't be good since people often ignore those calls. You don't want to leave a message since you want to catch them off guard. Have a friend call from 100 miles away w/o blocking their number. If she got the property from her uncle, then why isn't his name on record - at a minimum? One thing I love about New Jersey is that the history of ownership shows online for anyone to search and find. Very helpful. Did you get a paystub? Can't imagine what his excuse will be for this unless the company has more than one location, or he works offsite. I actually had this happen to me. I work from home most days and I had a client drop by our main office. Another (new) loan officer told her he never heard of me. Fortunately for me, she has been my client for years and knew that info was false. So, stuff happens. What employer is shown on his paystub. What employer is shown on his credit? If he doesn't want you to verify his true employment, that's a real bad sign cuz he might not be working there at all. After all, the employer would have to believe you are a real pathetic, awful, scum-of-the-earth employee for them to want to bad mouth the employee to a landlord. And if he's that bad, he wouldn't be working there.

Would you rent to this family?

James Vermillion

Lexington, KY · Member since 2009 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes

Would you rent to this family?

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