I received the following text:

THEM:

Hi, My name is Joe and I was wondering if you would be able to show us your house for rent at XXX Wiiiiiii Drive this week-end on either Saturday anytime afternoon or Sunday anytime that is convenient for you. If possible would you send me any other information we would need to know that was not listed on Zillow. This is my cell phone so you can call or text me back, if there is any paperwork you need us to fill out you can email me as well my email address is XXXX@ ya hoo . com thank you and I hope to hear back from you.

ME:

Hi Joe, Home can be shown after July 1st. Would you share with me your housing needs, how many people, smokers/vapor and any animals/breeds. Thanks.

THEM:

It is myself, my wife and one daughter in high school. We have a second daughter but she is in college at Truman in XXXX, MO. she is home now but will be heading back to school in early August. The 2 year lease would be better for us because my daughter will be a junior this coming year. We are currently in (((Town))) but my daughter is having issues with her school and her best friend does to (school district my house is in). We have a dog that is 18 month's old and he is a cattle dog and golden retriever we were told he is a rescue dog. And we are a non smoking family. I do have one question, would it be possible to have our rent payment set up for the 15th of each month, I am on government disability and I get paid in the middle of every month not at the beginning. If we are able to work this out of course. But I have been on disability since 2012 and my wife works for United Health care and has been there since 2010.

ME:

Sounds good, Can you share with me your names, please?

THEM:

Sure it's Joe n Cindy Cool. And yes I assure you that is our last name, I normally wait until we are in person to tell people so I can show my identity.

--- I put their names in Missouri CASENET... whoo weee,,, could it be true??? I thought their text messages were very well thought out and I looked forward to meeting them, until I read online legal information. I did give them the benefit of the doubt and showed them the house this past weekend and they paid the application fee and filled out the application while they were there. They wrote on the application their last rental address and the one before that... both addresses appear with their names with evictions from both addresses in the last 2 years owning $20k to two different landlords!!!! The last LL was a management company!!

If you are in Missouri use the Casenet and don't be fooled by con-artist!!! Were preying upon me? Would you have rented to them? didn't they sound like a perfect fit?

Wow, that was a great read, and I really love how the hammer dropped at the end. Thank goodness that you used Casenet, and I hope that other Missouri landlords can gain access to it too. Thank you for sharing your experiences and hope that you've just helped landlords in your area.

Off topic, I was in Missouri last week, and many places looked so green from the plane. You're lucky that you have lots of water.

I had a couple want to rent a house of mine.

They were in their early 60's. On disability, because she said she was assaulted by a student when teaching. Wanted the house as soon as they walked in the front door.

Then they asked if it would be ok, at their expense, for them to install a dishwasher in the home.

She hurriedly handed me $1,000 in money orders and I told her I'd still need to approve her app. I was a lot younger, but smelled a rat.

I ran credit, and there were no judgements listed (5 years ago).

But sure enough, her and her husband had 40-60 casenet entries each. They've been evicted probably 15 times now and even recently have been able to rent from some larger management companies in the STL area!

I actually ran these busters that tried to rent from me for a chuckle, and sure enough, she's got 9 pages on casenet and has the SAME landlord (from the past who has evicted her) as your applicant (Kleba). LOL

Plenty,

You go girl! Great save!

Your example is why we screen BEFORE we show. (or give out the lockbkx code). Saves a TON of time and energy.

Rent on!

Would you rent to them??? NO, NO AND NO WAY!!!

The worst part is what was the last LL, a management company, doing when they were screening this tenant? They missed the previous eviction. Oh well shame on them...

I've had several that knew all the right buttons to push. I check them all out as much as I can before even engaging them to know whether to bother or not.

Plenty,you did better than the English goalie did with Croatia..................charlie.....................a lot better

You definitely dodged a bullet and did so nicely. Well done and a valuable lesson to pass along to newer landlords.

I do have one question Plenty. Did this happen before lunch or after lunch?

The question, I assume, is rhetorical since I can't think of anyone on this board who would rent to someone who owes $20,000 to past land lords. Maybe someone would....

Not only would I not rent to them, I would not have wasted any significant amount of time. They're a perfect example of "storytellers" who paint a pretty picture because there's a disaster just below the surface.

Here's how it would've gone in my pre-screening system....

1) They sent their initial introduction text.

2) I reply with my copy and paste standard response.

3) They fill out the pre-screen app on our website.

4) I run their name on CaseNet. Oh dear, they've been evicted and owe a pile of money. We're done.

So, about 30-60 seconds of my time.

Was the extra time you spent worth it to get the exact same result that I did?

I read your post. And it appeared to me a lot of your limited valuable time with them including showing them the house, collecting their application information, driving to and from the showing, talking to them and texting. All your time would have been saved if you could have gotten their real legal name and quickly looked it up and found this info in seconds online.

Sorry but I go thru what you did, daily. 30 seconds looking up their eviction record and I never have talked, emailed or texted them.

You are very fortunate to have searches such as casenet, court records ect.

In Ontario its a violation of a tenants privacy to allow landlords to access eviction records.

I'm with Sid. You're wasting time. I don't email or text (past the first response), I call. And I don't call until I have their first and last name and have looked them up on case.net. I wouldn't dream of scheduling a showing to someone I hadn't first researched on case.net.

I hate when prospects ask me to tell them about what apt they are inquiring about. I know people look at multiple rentals, but organized people keep a list, look you up on their list and dive right in. Your prospects were just plain lazy, ding #1. I also would never say when they could see the apt; we gotta chat first- call ME, ding#2