Let’s discuss one of the most avoided topics in tenant screening… renter references.
You’re in the minority as a landlord or property manager if you’re calling your renter references because a lot of people just skip this step entirely.
They chalk it up to “it’s a waste of time.”
This couldn’t be further from the truth…
To clarify, we’re talking about the phone calls you make to the references your tenant applicant provides you. For example… their past landlord or current employer.
We’d suggest looking at questions to ask your renter if you’re looking for a list of questions to ask your tenant directly.
Will there be fake renter references?
Will, the occasional landlord not give you the full scoop because they’re trying to unload a problematic tenant?
But… there are tactics we will share with you to spot the fakes and pull out the crucial information you need.
We’ve found the three most important renter references (in order of importance) to be the following:
We do suggest calling to confirm contact details for personal references (in case of emergencies) but we don’t put a lot of importance on their opinion of the applicant since they are personal friends and family.
As you scroll down in this post you’ll see three mock phone calls where we show you how to call each one of these renter references.
We created these videos because many landlords have “phonophobia” when it comes to calling tenant references.
Our hope is to remove the anxiety by letting you follow along with Steve as he calls a previous landlord, current employer, and the current landlord.
Below is a clickable list of content that will be discussed in this post.
NOTE: RentPrep no longer provides the verification call add-on to our tenant background and credit reports. If you’d like to still run a background check through our service please use promo code “ TWENTYOFF ” to get 20% off your first report with us. Just sign up for a free account to get started.
A word of caution before we begin.
Be sure you have proper written authorization from your tenant applicant to make these calls. This authorization typically is included on the rental application.
On the RentPrep renter application, the verbiage is on the back and includes a line that says “I authorize the release of information from previous or current landlords, employers, and bank representatives.”
Without written consent, a landlord could be in violation of the laws laid out by the FCRA.
Renter references are the contacts a tenant applicant provides on their rental application. These will typically include the current landlord, previous landlord, current employer, emergency contact, and personal references. You will want to call most of these references to confirm the accuracy of the application and to identify any red flags.
Here’s a quick list of landlord reference questions to ask your renter references.
Employer references will be split on if they will provide salary information or not.
Some will ask for a copy of the authorization form before speaking with you.
We will cover this in more detail later on in the post.
This is an important call because you’ll want to verify they’re employed and will be able to afford your rental.
This phone call is a good step to verify that the applicant passes your rent to income ratio. Most landlords require that a renter make 2.5 to 3 times the monthly rent.
So if your rental is $1,000 a month you’ll want to call the current employer to verify that they’re making at least $3,000 monthly (assuming a 3x rent to income ratio).
You may also want to consider asking for pay stubs or a 90-day bank statement from an applicant. We’ve found about half of employers are unwilling to release this information.
We covered the questions to ask the current employer above but this video will break down a typical employer reference check.
Steve mentions our RentPrep rental application that you can download for free.
Here are the questions he asks in the video above:
Here’s Steve White (CEO of RentPrep) doing a mock call to a previous landlord.
In this video, Steve is calling a previous landlord that is a property manager.
Here are the questions Steve asked in the video above:
The questions labeled “loaded question” are intentional to make sure that the person on the phone knows all the details.
You want to use these questions to verify they are the actual property manager or former landlord.
In the next video, we show you how to call a current landlord. This is very similar to the video above but in this case, we will show an example when the current landlord is a private landlord and how that call may go.
Here are the questions Steve asked to the current landlord who is a private landlord:
Make sure your applicant is aware you will be calling their current landlord. You don’t want to be the one to break the news that they’re moving.
Be sure to ask when the current lease ends as you’ll want to know if they completed their lease or not. If not, why did they break the lease?
This information can help you uncover potential issues you didn’t know existed.
There is some investigative work you can do upfront to spot a fake landlord ref.
Let’s first start by using the previous landlord ref
This is a screenshot from our rental application and that’s a real address. It’s a two-unit rental that I own in the city of Buffalo.
First things first… it looks like this person only lived there for four months. That’s going to be a question we want answers to when you call the landlord.
Before we call let’s verify who owns that property.
Start off by searching your town + “property records” like this:
The first listing is the public property records provided by the county website.
The next screen looks like this.
I’ve highlighted S-B-L because that’s the Section, Block, Lot and is the most accurate way to find a property record.
This is also known as the parcel number. An easy way to find this is to type your address into Zillow and do a quick search on the page for “parcel” and you’ll find this number. It should be located in the drop-down menu titled “Facts and Features.”
The parcel number is 140200785616 for this property.
Not to get too far into the weeds but the JTWROS stands for “joint tenancy with rights of survivorship.” In my case this was my first property purchase and at 23 I didn’t have the credit I needed and I had to have a co-signer on the loan (thanks Mom and Dad!).
It’s important to understand that some tenants are confused and will put a property manager’s name into the “Landlord Name” section. If I had a property manager at that property that can create a discrepancy and you can verify this on your call.
This property record search will take just a few minutes before you place your call.
Now if I were applying to a rental I would list my current employer information like this:
I would recommend that you Google the employer with the name of the provided supervisor.
The information listed above is all of my real data. Fidelis Screening Solutions is the parent company that RentPrep exists under.
So if you Google “Fidelis Screening Solutions Stephen White” you would see these search results.
Now I’d suggest clicking on the LinkedIn link but right click and open it in a private window. This will make it so people can’t see a history of you viewing their profile.
When I scroll down on his LinkedIn profile I’ll see this:
This tells me two things.
I’d also check the company website (if there is one) to see if the phone number matches up with the company number.
Lastly, I would Google your tenant’s name and company. For me you’ll find a quick listing that will verify (at least on LinkedIn) my employer information.
All of these searches can be done before making a phone call.
If the information isn’t matching up don’t jump to conclusions, just get answers on the verification call.
For the personal tenant references consider asking these two questions:
Really, the point of this call is to verify the phone number and contact details.
It’s highly unlikely a personal tenant reference would give a bad reference.
However, if there is an emergency or if your tenant skips town you’ll want to have these personal references to call.
It’s a good idea to verify this information before a problem occurs.
Answer:
No
How do we know?
When we speak with previous landlords we have plenty that say something along the lines of, “I’ve owned 30 rentals for 10 years and this is only the third time I’ve been called about a former tenant.”
This isn’t surprising to hear. Especially considering there were 2.7 million evictions in 2015 and that number is trending upwards.
Based on this data, there’s an eviction every 11.9 seconds in the United States. The tally below adds an eviction every 12 seconds for this year.
Landlords who don’t make income verification calls are putting themselves at risk of a tenant eviction that could have been avoided.
Hopefully, this guide will encourage you to make those calls and help you avoid a potentially hazardous tenant.
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