As you may imagine I spend a lot of time reading your listings, speaking to owners and managers, and getting feedback from tenants.  I tend to see things from the perspective of our end user, the tenant. One place of interesting tension are those of you who will not show rentals before you get some very personal information as a condition of showing a rental.

A sophisticated tenant with a good credit history and a good job knows better than to give out personal information before deciding on a rental. The last thing they want is 10 or 15 inquiries on their credit report because owners will not permit a viewing until they get personal information on the tenant. They value their good credit rating and will not be handing our personal information before even seeing a rental.  

Do you want the smarter tenant who protects  their credit rating? Or do you prefer the tenant who does not know anything about their credit?

Are you asking  questions about social security numbers, birthdates, and driver’s licenses as a condition to see a home? The scammer knows you are not running their credit. They know there must be a legitimate reason to run a credit report, and “I am showing a house to Joe Smith” he may never rent is not a kosher reason to access someone's credit report.  People who know this may simply avoid you and not say a word; and the owner who does this loses the best prospects.

It is interesting to me as I talk to owners how many really get ticked off at the idea of someone saying, “Hey, this is really not a good idea and you are chasing away the tenant with the better credit rating.” I hear all the reasons from “this is my screening process” to “this is how I’ve always done it.” However, when I ask how many inquiries turn into actual conversations with prospective tenants I find they lose a lot of people after they send their first email to the tenant’s  initial inquiry. In fact, the landlords who demand very personal information before showing a home seem to have the least follow through from tenants.

Some of these landlords tell me this is because  they have weeded out people who are not serious…Not true, you are weeding out the best people who are careful about their credit rating and see you as already too intrusive.  When you have a choice because you have been responsible you are going to make a responsible choice.

Here is an actual response to an inquiry asking to see a see a rental, "Thank you for your interest. Our procedure is to have you complete a short form application prior to arranging a viewing. We also suggest that your drive by the property first, to make sure that you like the neighborhood. Please return via email or you can fax to 616-964-32XX."

So is this a scam? Is "Gerald" a real landlord or is he a slick identity thief? Who knows, but a smart tenant with good credit is going to move on to someone other than this landlord.

Do I advocate doing credit reports? YES! Wait until you have narrowed down your list to a few tenants whose employment you have checked, whose references you have checked and to a few people you would like living in your investment property . If you are collecting social security numbers as a condition of seeing the rental in the first place you are making a big mistake, smart people are not going to give you access to their credit report so quickly especially when they have their choice of most any rental.