I had someone contact me almost a week ago about an apartment. I got her full name, address, etc and ran a preliminary check on her on our free state court system. I always do this before scheduling a showing as I am not going to waste my time, if they won't at least pass that first check.

She passed that initial check so I emailed her photos of the apartment and she asked for an application. I emailed that as well but something felt "off" even though I could not pinpoint it.

I got the application back today and started checking it out. Still felt that hesitancy feeling. I also checked out her previous last name that I asked for on my application. I ask for all other names that a person has been known by. Nothing there.

In the application she wrote that a prior landlord had died so the family sold the place where she was renting. My thought was that if she was a good tenant and they did not need the place for themselves, wouldn't they keep her as an existing tenant? I would, if she was a good tenant. No phone number for the former "landlord" so I tried to find him on people search services. Even if he had passed away, he should have been listed somewhere. Absolutely no one by that name came up on either people search website.

For references, she mostly listed victim advocates, agencies helping her get a new place, etc. Not exactly non biased if their purpose was to help the tenant.

Then I found out she is currently in a shelter and had stayed in a hotel with her "boyfriend" before that . Good Grief.

I always ask on my application for an emergency contact if I could not reach them so after she had put her son as an emergency contact, I checked her out with that last name and found another last name in her other info that I believe could have been her last name as well. I was right. Two more last names including evictions, criminal, etc backgrounds. Nope not a chance I am taking her. She didn't put either of the other last names on the application.

ALWAYS TRUST YOUR GUT FEELINGS. They have never steered me wrong. I just needed to have a legit reason in her file for not approving her application. Done and done.

I did check out 2 other interested parties with the preliminary background check. Evictions on all. NOPE, no way.

I’ve been a landlord for almost 50 years. In that time you develop second sense about applicants. I trust my gut when I’ve get a feeling something just is not right.

No lost rent during Covid and 18 years since my last eviction.

Good catch Cat!

Me? Only trust your gut when it’s telling you something is wrong.

NEVER trust a gut when it’s telling you to “give them a chance”.

I cannot begin to count the number of LLs who fall into resident troubles and begin the explanation with “they were such nice people “

OR “I had a good felling about them.”

I hear you Brad and I agree. They are nice because they have to be, to con landlords who let personal feelings cloud their judgement instead of treating their business like a business.

They have a LOT of practice and they learn to say exactly what a landlord wants to hear and use the pity stories that work for them.

There were other red flags. She mentioned she had all funds needed in cash and could pay an extra month ahead. Every time she contacted me, she mentioned that.

In her application, her birth month and day should have been 3-1 but it appeared that she added a second 3 to make the date 3-13 to not match the online court records. Sometimes in the court records, she left a letter off her middle name (Lyn instead of Lynn), but all tracked back to her

She told me, once I knew she was in a shelter that she was afraid to be there, as there were someone with mental issues there that was bothering her. In checking out her background, I would not consider her to be the helpless type.

Just a bad tenant trying to get a landlord, any landlord, to rent to her.

I ask each person who's want to live in a rental that's 18 and over to completely fill out the application and provide supporting documentation. Then I run a complete background check with criminal history, evictions, checks, credit, FICO score, previous addresses, previous jobs, etc. Then I compare the Facts with the Fiction applicants put down on the forms.

Like you I had someone who claimed someone was their employer, that turned out to be the boyfriend who was a co-occupant. The lies that people tell themselves.

Excellent detective work, Cat.

Over the years I've learned to just start out by assuming that applicants are lying and it's my job to find the lies. Some of them can be quite clever in their deceit, so I am searching for reasons to reject each and every applicant.

It's a small percentage who can pass the screening without being caught out in a serious misrepresentation about who they are and how they behave.

I would have rejected this one right off the bat for "no landlord reference".

I will make a minor effort to locate a landlord, but not much effort. The applicant can tell me how to get in touch with their legitimate landlord, or we are done at that point.

In future, if you care enough to do it, you can look up that address, verify that it was sold, and contact the listing agent on the sale. The listing agent can put you in touch with the family who sold the house.