I know this has been addressed before, but i want to revisit it. New applicant has given me the current landlords phone number and said please text before you call. When i seach the number online, a different owners name appears.

I am looking for ways to verify I am actually talking to the landlord:

- I always ask them to verify incorrect info to see if they correct me.

- Ask them when they purchased the house.

Other ideas???

Incorrect rent amount? They say they pay $1200, you say $1950 or $1250, whatever. If they don't correct you, they are lying.

Did they pay utilities? Probably not something they would be coached on?

Do they have pets?

I've googled the LL and gotten the number directly. Is directory assistance still available? If you have the address, you can get the number directly. I think the key is to get or confirm the phone number independently of what the tenant provided. I typically check public ownership records to confirm the LL name and then get or confirm the phone number independent of the tenant.

I never use the phone number provided on landlord references. Unless you have time to try and "catch the fake landlord" red handed, I just look up the tax assessment roll then do a google search for that person.

I check the tenants property address records at the county to see who actually owns the property. Then I go after that phone number.

Easily a third, and possibly more, of my applicants have lied about who their landlord is. It's a standard cheat that is commonly used by tenants.

So yes, identity of the landlord must be verified.

Whoever is pretending to be the landlord is never well rehearsed. They can answer a couple of standard questions and tell you that the tenant is great, but they don't know the answer to anything else.

When doing a prev landlord check, I first:

1. check the city tax roll and verify that the person listed as the applicant's prev landlord actually owns the property as listed in the city tax roll.

2. then I attempt to find the landlord's phone number via google and other means.

3. If the phone number verifies, I ask the prev landlord when he bought the property (verify the date given with realtor.com).

4. now that i'm pretty sure that I'm speaking to the actual perv landlord, I begin with my questions.

My properties are in my LLC's name.

Soon they will be in individual trusts.

That will make looking up owners and phone numbers harder. A downfall for sure, but I am still going thru with it.

I have searched using fast people search. dot com you can look up by phone number or name, city and state. Yes, many have cell numbers. I have found some cell numbers there.