A landlord’s guide on what to watch out for when screening applicants during the holiday season aka the “Silly Season.”
Greetings!
I’m sending out this note because the “Silly Season” has kicked off EARLY!! Again!
Typically, the applications we see from November to January 1st have the most inventive information and the most interesting Criminal reports we see all year. This year, it started in the summer and has already kicked into high gear. As we approach the Holiday Season, this is when things should slow down a bit.
Who wants to move when they are getting ready to put Christmas decorations out?
They don’t want to move; they have to move.
Instances of Sex offenders are down, but violent offenders are up with a higher percentage of domestic and other types of assault.
If you’ve attended ANY of my classes, the one thing I stress the most is:
View picture ID and a recent pay stub.
We are encountering so many bad Social Security numbers, incorrect spelling of names and fictional money coming from various unverifiable sources.
Follow the money, internet search EVERYTHING and watch for that “Too good to be true” story.
If they want to pay a year of rent in advance, there is an issue.
Be sure you have written screening criteria, and make the applicants sign or initial it.
You keep the signed copy and give the applicant a blank one. You can be fined if you fail to give the applicant written screening criteria, and it will let the applicants know that you will be checking all of their information carefully.
Do charge a screening fee and give the applicant a receipt showing that they paid for it.
I have one landlord who keeps calling to be sure we can still charge a screening fee.. YES!
Just make sure it’s about the same amount your screening company charges you.
If you don’t charge a screening fee, you are basically telling the applicant that you don’t do background checks. The applicants then think they can probably sneak in, even with whatever issues they have accumulated.
Credit information is NOT pulled by Social Security Number alone. Many items must match to have a complete report, such as addresses, names, and date of birth. When entering information, be sure you are entering at least two addresses for each applicant, and one of those addresses should be the one from their driver’s license or state ID. If your applicant receives an N/A result on a report, it could be due to not enough matching information.
Verify income carefully. I never want to have to worry about a tenant having to choose between “Heat or Eat”. They need to make enough money to pay the rent and take care of their other living expenses.
Watch for the long story! Or just weird stories.
Twice this year we had parents bring their adult children into the leasing office offering to pay the whole year of rent right now, if that child could move in immediately. These “Adult Children” were in their 30’s. In one case the parents moved out of state and made sure there was no way to contact them at the end of the year. That “Child” ended up homeless, in Bend. In the other case the tenant found a new home in jail, after physically accosting several other residents in the community.
We recently had an applicant who had a long eviction history, but he was so smooth and charming that the landlord still considered renting to him.. Until I found and spoke to his most recent landlord who had to attempt to evict him four times and finally got him out after he signed an agreement to pay August rent and leave in September. He had failed to pay June or July rent. He also failed to follow the agreement, and she finally got him out. AND he had a very nice rental reference from someone claiming to be his current landlord.
It turned out that she was just a friend.
In many cases if the applicant knows you are going to dig up the information they don’t want you to see, they will attempt to pressure you into moving more quickly in the hope that you will miss something. Watch for people in a BIG HURRY!
Google search addresses, we’ve had two applicants list a storage unit as their current address.
So what do we do? We take things very slowly. Pay more attention to how the application is filled out, check picture ID more carefully, and ask for a recent pay stub or proof of income.
If the applicant is in a BIG Hurry, you tell them it will take you five days to complete your verification process.
And no matter how tempting, remember that almost everyone who offers to pay you six months’ rent in advance is probably either a recreational pharmaceutical salesperson (Drug Dealer) or such a terrible tenant that they want to lock YOU into a year lease so it’s harder to get them out. And watch out for those parents attempting to get rid of that “Adult Child” they no longer want to live with.
Verify all telephone numbers. Just today I found that one phone number was a family member, and one was to a friend who works at the same company, but NOT as the manager.
Try to not call the number the applicant listed for employers, find the main number for the company.
The applicant who listed a storage facility as her address listed that she lived in #6. How did I find that? Google. It’s a great tool for landlords! Plug in the address and see what comes up!
Does it appear to be an apartment community? A house? Or is it a strip mall or office complex?
Portlandmaps.com is also so helpful for digging for information, and many of the larger cities in the US now have a similar web site available. If you are given an address that is a house or duplex, you can search up the owner information and tax address.
You still have to find the phone number; use Whitepages.com or Truepeoplesearch.com both are very helpful and also display several possible email addresses for the landlords.
I know, I know. This sounds like a LOT of extra work. But it will pay off in the end. You don’t want to start out your New Year looking for lawyers, or stuck with a bad tenant, because you didn’t verify that “One little Thing”..
I do recognize that many of you are seasoned landlords and know ALL the tricks and tips. If you have a good one, send it to me! I’d love to hear from you on this.
There are good people moving, so don’t lose hope. Just be careful and take things slowly.
Frankly, most of the people we screen are great tenants and there are no issues.
The BAD applicants are the ones that take up a lot of time and energy
and are the most interesting to deal with.
We have screening classes several times each month and talk about the trends we are seeing, and we go over recent reports to talk about the results and the stories that came with the application. Watch out for our next invitation for our class on November 4th.
Once we get to January the better applicants reappear.
Until then, just remember. ‘Tis the Season!!
Marcia Gohman