We manage 236 doors in Memphis, mostly single-family, and the screening step that saves us the most trouble is simple: does the story match the paperwork?

When someone tells us about their income, job, and housing history, we check that same story three ways — the application, the pay stubs, and the landlord references. The numbers do not have to be fancy. What matters is verified, repeatable income and consistency. A job that shows up the same way on the application and the stubs, and rent history that lines up with what a prior landlord says — that is a stronger signal than one credit score number by itself.

If something does not line up, we treat it as a flag to verify, not a conclusion. People change jobs, get paid on different schedules, and paperwork can be messy. So we ask, document, and apply the same check to every applicant, every house, the same way.

That discipline matters especially across a lot of doors. One loose exception early can turn into a collections and turnover problem later, and turnover costs more than most owners expect.

Landlords — when you screen, what inconsistency do you see most often between what an applicant says and what the paperwork shows, and how do you verify it before you decide?