Due diligence on No w2 tenants

[Mary Jay]

if a prospective tenant is self employed   I can’t ask for w2 verification. So I can ask for the copy of taxes. 

1) what tax form should I ask for ? 1099? 

2) anybody can fake tax form  (fotoshop year 2013 into 2018, etc), should I ask for  the tenant to fill out the 4506 form to request the tax transcripts from the irs myself , right?

How long does it take to get it ? 

Is it an overkill ? 

3 ) can call previous landlords of course 

4) bank account verification ? What else ? 

Thank you! 

[Thomas S.]

Aside from the usual background checks I would rely heavily on the credit check. Many self employed have sketchy credit scores making it easy to reject their application. I prefer to just reject all self employed applicants. Most are very unreliable due to inconsistent income. I don't like wasting my time working at screening difficult applicants.

If you rent to someone self employed make it crystal clear that late payment will not be tolerated. All tenants that are self employed should be on M2M lease so you can eject them quickly as soon as the pay late the first time.