Tenant Fraud: Scams Landlords Must Be Aware Of

In this episode of Your Landlord Resource, we dive into one of the most critical issues facing self-managing landlords today: tenant fraud. With the rental market becoming increasingly competitive, scammers are finding new ways to deceive landlords, leaving property owners vulnerable to financial loss and legal headaches.

We break down the most common types of tenant fraud, from falsified income documents to identity theft, and share practical tips on how to spot these red flags early. You'll learn about the importance of thorough tenant screening processes, how to verify the authenticity of documents, and the critical questions you should be asking during the application process.

As a landlord, protecting your property and investment is vital. This episode provides you with the tools and knowledge needed to safeguard your rental business from fraudulent tenants. Whether you're new to property management or a seasoned pro, the insights shared in this discussion will help you stay ahead of potential scams and maintain a professional and secure operation.

LINKS

👉 Episode 49: Analyzing Credit Reports for Tenant Selection

👉 Our Preferred Tenant Screening Software: Tenant Alert:

👉 Episode 61: Fair Housing and Emotional Support Animals (ESA’s)

👉 Episode 32: Our Lease and Addendum Breakdown, A 3-Part Masterclass

👉 Episode 33: Our Lease and Addendum Breakdown Part 2

👉 Episode 34: Our Lease and Addendum Breakdown Part 3

👉 The Accounting Software we use: QuickBooks

👉 The Best Newbie Landlord Management Software: TurboTenant

👉 Course Waitlist: From Marketing to Move In, Place Your Ideal Tenant
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Transcript

Kevin: 0:00

Yeah. I mean, it's just crazy how people will just hand over their money. I mean, we have had plenty of applicants verify us as landlords. And to be honest, we do not ask for any money until we meet them in person. I think the issue is scammers just prey on the vulnerable and create a sense of urgency and panic, regardless if it's a landlord eager to rent or an applicant anxious to find their perfect home. Welcome to your Landlord Resource Podcast. Many moons ago, when I started as a landlord, I was as green as it gets. I may have had my real estate license, but I lacked confidence and the hands on experience needed when it came to dealing with tenants, leases, maintenance, and bookkeeping. After many failed attempts, fast forward to today, Kevin and I have doubled our doors and created an organized, professionally operated rental property business. Want to go from overwhelmed to confident? If you're an ambitious landlord or maybe one in the making, join us as we provide strategies and teach actionable steps to help you reach your goals and the lifestyle you desire, all while building a streamlined and profitable rental property business. This is your Landlord Resource Podcast.

Stacie: 1:18

Well, hello there, landlords, and welcome to the Your Landlord Resource Podcast. I am your host, Stacie Casella, and I'm here today with my co host, Kevin Kilroy.

Kevin: 1:29

Hi there everybody and thanks so much for taking time out of your busy day to give us a listen. And we have an important show that applies to all landlords today regardless of how many units they own or how long they've been a rental property owner. So today we're talking about tenant fraud. As this occurs mostly during the application process, we are here to talk about one more thing to be aware of during the already stressful task of finding your next tenant.

Stacie: 1:57

Yeah, so let's start off with some statistics for you. In 2023, more than 70 percent of major apartment landlords, so those interviewed have a few more units than us, uh, reported an increase in fraudulent rental applications. Transunion states that six out of 10 multifamily property owners and managers have experienced fraud in the last two years. You guys, those are really high numbers. It said 38 percent of those surveys by TransUnion said that they did not identify this fraud until after the applicant had already moved in. And the thing we found really interesting is that this fraud occurs more for landlords or property managers who offered one or more months of free rent as incentive for their unit

Kevin: 2:51

And you know what, that makes sense when you think about it. I mean those applicants look great. They get accepted They get in with a month or two of free rent, and then they default on rent payments as soon as it becomes due. I think it's also important to note that these instances occur in areas that had a lower concentration of eviction rates and, duh, higher levels of rental fraud.

Stacie: 3:16

Yep. And once they're in, especially in the tenant friendly states where evictions might be lower, It's really difficult to evict them. Not to mention the time and the financial burden that this place is on the landlord. So meanwhile, you have this fraudster living in your unit and you're not receiving any income. This forces you to draw on your reserves or your own personal savings to carry the property, and pay for all those expenses until you can get that person out.

Kevin: 3:45

And think about if they get really nasty and trash the unit before leaving. I mean, luckily enough, we have not experienced anything yet, but we do know of some people who have finally gotten a tenant out and they found their unit with giant holes in the wall. I mean, poop smeared all over the walls and floors. Water that's been left running for days on end, causing the water bill to be enormous. I mean broken windows, doors ripped off their hinges. I mean you kind of get the point, right?

Stacie: 4:15

Yeah, and there's a whole mental illness issue that goes along with this and we're not we're not getting into that. All right, so today we will address what kind of fraud to be on the lookout for as well as ways to mitigate that risk. So let's start off with all the different ways this fraud can occur. And then later in the episode, we'll talk about how you can avoid those from happening to you. The first one is falsifying pay stubs. And it seems to be the most common. This is where they either alter their real pay stub to make it show that they make way more money than they do. Or they will completely create a fake pay stub that shows that they have a job that they don't actually have, which means they're making no money at all. And just like with fake ESA letters, there are companies online that someone can pay to create a fake pay stub. All they have to do is give them the name of the employer and how much they want to earn, and a legit looking pay stub is created with accurate year to date income and taxes withdrawn. Identity fraud is another big one. I mean, it's off the charts right now. And scammers are slick man, and they can get your personal information from you easy peasy. All they have to do is catch you at a weak moment, and you're going to hand it all over. And this happened to me way back when my late husband was in the hospital. I like to think of myself as a pretty smart person, but I was stressed, I'd had no sleep, and at 11 o'clock at night, I checked my email and there was a phishing email from Bank of America, who I no longer bank with, by the way. And they said I needed to log on and update my profile. And I'm such an idiot. I went on, I gave them everything. I clicked their link and I logged on to what I thought was B of A's website and proceeded to complete their form and update my profile. And I gave them everything. Social security number, date of birth, address, mother's made name. You name it, they got it. And yes, the next day I found that they had drained my account of thousands of dollars. So that was great for me to deal with along with all the other stuff on my plate at the time. And they did not waste any time. I had a Target credit card taken out in my name and I was contacted by an auto lender to verify my identity as well. I mean, it was lovely. Now I did file a stolen identity claim through the U S government, as well as all the credit bureaus, which put an alert on my social security number. It does only last for a few years, so if this has happened to you, you need to consider redoing it. But through the IRS, there was a form that you can fill out where they will issue a pin number for your social security number for filing taxes and that one does not expire. This is so someone cannot steal my identity and try to file taxes in my name, which apparently is a big thing going on. The only way we can file our taxes is with that pin number. So when that number is sent to me, I make sure that it stays safe until those returns are filed with the IRS.

Kevin: 7:31

I mean, yeah, I mean, that just sucks. They prey on the weak, the vulnerable, and the unfocused, unfortunately.

Stacie: 7:38

Yeah, well, they got me. And you guys, this was like 15 or 20 years ago, and they've gotten so much more creative now, so be careful. Just last week, my mom was smart enough to ask me about a very real looking email from Xfinity saying she hadn't paid her bill. And she set up on auto pay, which does notify her when payment has been made. But this was around the time that a bill was due. And she was worried that maybe her credit card had expired and she needed to update it. But the saving grace here is that she does not access any of her accounts online. She's savvy, she loves Instagram, she does good with email, but she doesn't like to pay anything electronically. I'm the one who handles that for her. So thankfully she didn't have the login information to go on because she would have done the same thing as I did. Anyway, I taught her how to look at the sender's email to see if it's from a legit company, or if it's something like Joe. Element54876WZMY. com, which obviously is fake. So let's get back to fake identities. Scammers who either do something like they did to me and get the person to hand over their personal information or someone who buys info off the black market, can easily have a very valid ID or driver's license made. They will submit their rental application and upload a photo of their ID along with the fake pay stubs and they're good to go. And landlords who do not do extensive background checks or verify information would never know that this information is false. Which stands to reason with that statistic that was mentioned earlier about how many landlords found out after the fact that their tenant had falsified documents. You see, because I went ahead and I alerted the credit bureaus, if someone would have tried to pull credit in my name, a huge alert comes up warning them about the stolen identity. So even if you have to pay for it, please pull someone's credit.

Kevin: 9:44

Yep, we know many many landlords with really nice properties who do not take the time to properly vet a tenant. It's very dangerous, especially with how hard it is to evict someone here in California. Okay Let me talk about fake credit reports now. You know, these days it is pretty easy. We had a lot of prospective tenants who have pulled their own credit report and want us to use that, and they offer it up. This is a huge no, no. Well, except in states like New York, who mandate you accept it. It is so easy for someone to go online, buy a template for one of the major credit reporting agencies and make their own credit reports. And I'll tell you, we've seen samples of these false credit reports, and I mean, they look really authentic. So, if they insist on providing you with one, or maybe it's the law that you have to accept it, just toss it and pay for your own report on them. They should be signing the application authorizing you to do a background check. So, if you're really desperate to place a tenant, just go ahead and spend the extra 15 to 20 bucks yourself to get their credit report. We will get to who we use for this and why in a little bit.

Stacie: 10:56

Yeah, I mean, that's a really small amount of insurance to pay for verification, don't you think?

Kevin: 11:01

Absolutely. Total no brainer. And identity theft is not the only thing that can be stolen. I mean, there are scammers out there who will copy your marketing listing for your vacant unit and post them to another site at a discounted rent. Then they rent the unit to an unsuspecting applicant who unfortunately hands over a bundle money for the security deposit and first month's rent, and then they tell them to go to the property and get the key that's under the mat.

Stacie: 11:29

You know, it wasn't exactly that, but we a hundred percent had that happen. We have a family member who lives about 90 minutes away from his rental, which is actually located really near us. And where he handles a bulk of the work, he asked us to handle the showings for him and lists my number on his ads. So, I get a call one night from this guy who was a bit distraught. His wife was handling finding them a new rental and said they found our listing on Zillow. So far so good, right? And when he called, he asked for my family member's name, not mine, which I kind of thought was odd. And when I explained my relationship and that I'm helping him out, he asked if the home had been rented. And no, actually it hadn't. It had been kind of quiet, which is odd because this place usually rents really quickly. The person then asked me, which still floors me to this day, if we had received the$5000 holding fee and security deposit that they had sent. You guys, I almost dropped my phone. After telling him no, he proceeded to ask me if it was such and such property for$2000 rent. Which was really low rent for this area. Again, no. And then he told me that his wife had sent someone$5000 to hold this property until they could get into town that weekend to view it. Man, did I feel awful. So apparently at that time, and this was six or seven years ago, Zillow had a problem where hackers could access ads and switch the info on it, so that the hacker is contacted. And when I went on Zillow to check the ad, I could absolutely see the same ad that these people had seen. So I got ahold of Zillow and they pretty much said, uh, Oh, uh, that's too bad. Sorry about that, we'll just delete it. You know, I was furious. And later we did find out that they have had put parameters now in place to lower the chance of a hack like this. But that doesn't stop someone from downloading your unit photos and all the information and then placing an ad on Craigslist, or a completely different site. And they usually do like our scammer did and put a rent that is an incredible deal. And they get a lot of interest on that ad. And then they do like Kevin mentioned and move forward with apps from multiple unsuspecting applicants and take all their money.

Kevin: 13:59

Yeah. I mean, it's just crazy how people will just hand over their money. I mean, we have had plenty of applicants verify us as landlords. And to be honest, we do not ask for any money until we meet them in person. I think the issue is scammers just prey on the vulnerable and create a sense of urgency and panic, regardless if it's a landlord eager to rent or an applicant anxious to find their perfect home. So another scam that we are seeing a lot of these days and not just an application fraud, but sometimes when buying something online through Facebook Marketplace or Next Door, it's called the refund or overpayment scam, where someone will send or give you a check for a security deposit, then they will write it for several hundred dollars more than the amount due. Then they come back and ask you to please refund the amount that was overpaid via Zelle or Venmo. And many unsuspecting honest people will just send it right back. Then the person cancels the check, or the check bounces, and the people walk away with the amount you just sent them as a refund. And you guys, some have been taken for thousands of dollars on this one, so be really careful. And I think we touched on this already, but fraudulent documents are super easy to get online. I mean, there's even courses you can buy to teach you on how or sites online that will do the work for you. So think ESA letters, paycheck stubs, tax returns for those who are self employed, credit reports, and even employment verification letters that someone might ask you for if you're moving into a new area. Subletting is another one. If you do not have it in your lease that you do not allow your tenants to sublease, you are really asking for trouble. The only way someone should be able to do this is with your authorization. Like if you hire a liaison for a midterm or short term rental, where someone is the leaseholder and in charge of all the comings and goings, and then you get a cut of what they make. But not having verbiage in your lease prohibiting a tenant from subleasing, especially in tenant friendly states where eviction is difficult. Mean, that's a gamble we do not suggest you take. You authorized the tenant to live there. You, hopefully, did a thorough background check and feel confident they'll care for your unit. If they sublet to someone else, all that goes out the door. You do not have a contract with that person that subleases. If you have issues, then you have to go through your tenant to get authorization to enter and do any inspections or preventative maintenance. And the issue is that your tenant is likely leasing your property out for more than you charge them. So they're making money on your property. And lastly, your insurance may not cover for subleased units. So if there is severe damage done or a flood or a fire, you may not be covered. And the same goes for unauthorized tenants. Some tenants will not tell you that someone else is living with them because maybe they have horrible credit and do not qualify. Or they may have a criminal record that might make you consider selecting another tenant with a clean record. So one person qualifies and then brings in roommates to help supplement the rent and maybe like in the subleasing situation, they are making money on the deal by charging a few people collectively more rent than they have to pay you. For us, this is why inspections are so important. Multiple times we have found a significant other has moved in and we were never told about it. And to be honest, it did kind of piss us off. We don't mind couples living together, but we want to know because the extra person does affect the wear and tear on a unit, which for us, may be a reason to increase the rent a little so we can get compensated for it. Damages is another scheme that some tenants will do. And this one guys is really low, but they will purposely damage your unit and make it seem like it's an issue that is caused from poor maintenance. They will not tell you about the issue that is going on and then report the damage to their local licensing and inspections department or whatever your city calls the department that focuses on the rights of tenants, saying that you have not made an effort to remedy the problem. In turn, you get issued a violation or a citation and this gives them legal precedence to not have to pay their rent. And the last one we know about are fake references. Whether this is for personal references, previous landlords, or employers, people will list someone's name and put their friend's phone number. Then you call that number and ask about their experience with the applicant when they were this quote unquote landlord's tenant. They tell you how great they are, they know the dates of tenancy the tenant listed, and the address too, so it all seems pretty legit. Same goes with employers. We do call personal references, but we usually have questions we ask where we can tell how well they know the person and have learned how to tell if someone is lying or not. Honestly, we do take info from personal references with a grain of salt. We really do it so that the tenant knows we mean business, and care about who lives on our properties.

Stacie: 19:17

Yeah, we have heard some very interesting stories about applicants before. So let's move on to some suggestions on what you can do to mitigate the risk of dealing with scammers. And you guys, here's what I'm going to say. The chance that you're able to recognize a false document that is sent to you, whether it be a fake credit report or fake pay stub is pretty slim. The forms are very real looking if the applicant pays for them. But no, matter what with every application that comes through that provides pay stubs you want to look at the dates. We ask for the last three paycheck stubs, not just the last two. Now remember when they send you the stubs the amount of the paycheck, both net and gross are on there, as well as the year to date amount, and that is a number you want to check. You can tell by the paycheck how often they are paid based on the dates of service. So if the applicant says they have worked for this company for, say, three years, and if each paycheck says the net amount earned is$1000 and it's December and the person is paid weekly, then you should be seeing a year to date amount around$50,000 not$75,000 or a$100,000. You shouldn't see paydates that fall on a Sunday or ones that fall on a Monday for one and Wednesday for another and Friday for another, unless they get paid only once a month. Because for weekly and bi weekly paychecks, it's very rare for a company to pay on different days. It's usually every Friday or every other Friday or maybe something like 15th and the 30th. And you should be able to see a pattern and tie it all together. You know how you really check it? You directly call the human resources person for the company that they say they work for. You will probably need to submit a request and provide the applicant's signature authorizing you to inquire about their income. And some small companies won't even ask for this. They will be able to verify the information right then and there on the phone. But this is something you want to make sure that you take the time to do because if they provide fake pay stubs or lie about the amount they make, they're not going to pay you rent and it will cost you a bundle of time and money and frustration to remove them.

Kevin: 21:42

And let me jump in here real quick and tell you that some employers will not share the exact amount of income someone makes and that's actually okay. In this case, once we have verified the employer is legit, we will then give them a range and ask them if the applicant's income falls within it. So, let's say their paycheck stub shows that they should make around$75,000 annually. You can ask if their income range is between$70,000 and$80,000 a year. This is something we do and most every time they comply.

Stacie: 22:15

Yeah, that is what we do and it, and it does work really well for us. And you guys, the same thing goes with credit reports. Sometimes we'll have applicants pay for their own reports and I think it costs like$17. But I do know in some states that they are now forcing landlords to accept applicant provided credit reports and quite frankly, this is ridiculous. Not going to go off on this whole thing right now, but I would just tell them, sure, you can provide it, but I'm going to run it anyway, even if it's on my own dime. And here's why. So we use Tenant Alert to run all of our credit reports for our applications. And like I said, the basic report for credit is$17. I think it goes up to around$23 if I want to add on a criminal background check with it. But what I like is that we can pay for the report ourselves or send the link to the applicant for them to pay. Plus, we get the report back in a matter of minutes. And sometimes it's like one to two minutes. They offer tri merge credit reports. So you get a credit score and a report from all three credit bureaus. What I truly like about them is that they have this automatic tenant select grading scale that goes up to 100 percent and that takes into account everything that's important to us. And next to that percentage, they're going to note that based on the information they have found, if the tenant should be approved or not. And to be honest, we're pretty thorough with our marketing and our pre screening questions. So we rarely have anyone less than a hundred percent. So unfortunately I can't tell you where the cutoff is for someone not being approved. Good credit, low debt to income ratio, no bounce checks, addresses all checkout, no identity theft on their account, et cetera. And when I see that grade anywhere above 90%. I know I'm in a good place to move forward. And then we go ahead and we verify the rest of the information that's on their application. We do take into account their FICO score and I'm not going to go into all that. We did a podcast all about how to read a credit report. It's episode 49 and we'll link it in the show notes and you can go back and check it out. It's a really good reference to have. TenantAlert also has a program called Lease Guarantee, which is tenant insurance that you can buy. And it's not cheap at all, but if you buy it, you can get coverage for any lost rents, security deposits, as well as money back on any evictions that you have to file. The amount of coverage is up to ten thousand dollars and the price varies on how much you require. This coverage can be paid for by you or by the applicant. Anyway, you can set up a free account for tenant alert if you're interested. We'll link them in the show notes.

Kevin: 25:06

And I'm not sure about that one, but some of those tenant insurance policies do have legal teams that will take over and get the rents paid back or give legal guidance on processing the eviction.

Stacie: 25:18

Right. And some landlords are now making tenants pay for that in lieu of asking for a guarantor. So you know, like if everything's great about the applicant, except maybe they don't have good credit or maybe they lack rental history. But that's who we use. And no matter what, we will run a credit report, which also will throw up a warning about identity theft too. So that 17 bucks is worth its weight in gold. As for false ESA certificates, check out podcast episode 61 where we went over ways to discover those and ways to verify an ESA is actually an ESA and not just a pet posing is one. We'll link that in the show notes. you have to know we're gonna say this, but for the issues Kevin talked about on subletting, unauthorized occupants, and damages you have to be a hands on landlord. We cannot express this enough, inspections, inspections, inspections. Once at move in, once mid lease, and once at renewal or move out. That's a minimum of three times a year that you're in there getting eyes on your unit. And hey, we hope everything is great, but you have to make a presence in order to know what is happening behind those doors.

Kevin: 26:36

And you need a very comprehensive lease to cover yourself. So in episodes 32, 33 and 34, we did a masterclass on what your lease should include. We went over section by section and gave details of what to include and why it's important. So we'll link those in the show notes as well. But of course, one of the things you need to make sure is included in your lease is a clause that prohibits subleasing. This will keep tenants from using your rental as an Airbnb, or maybe placing someone else in there should they need to move or no longer choose to live there. So I want to take a minute to address the issue of someone giving you a fake or fraudulent check. And you guys, I really hate to admit this, but several years ago, we had some crooks who lived across the street from us. They would steal people's mail and then create fraudulent checks off of accounts they would get through the theft. And I'm not going to go into the full details, but those guys were bad news. I mean, there were several times where the house was raided, and it just created such a ruckus in the whole neighborhood. But they did find check printing machinery in their rooms.

Stacie: 27:47

Can I tell them how they got caught?

Kevin: 27:49

Sure. I mean, this was a detective's dream

Stacie: 27:53

Okay, so, you know when you go into the grocery store and you enter your phone number so you can get special coupons and discounts on purchases or in the case of this grocery store, you can get discounts on gas prices. Those guys would take fake checks and obviously fake IDs and go to our local grocery store and buy a bunch of gift cards to use at other stores. And when they would check out, they would enter their own personal phone number into the machine to get those points.

Kevin: 28:24

Yeah, we used to live across from some absolute geniuses, right? But it is good to note that most of these people are not super smart. They'll make mistakes at some point, so this is why we want to emphasize the importance of being very detailed with your fact checking on applicants. But getting back to fake checks. As mentioned earlier, there is an overpayment scam where you approve someone and they give you a fraudulent check for well over the amount you requested, then ask you for a refund of the amount overpaid. Here is how you prevent this from happening. First, have a strict overpayment policy. Never accept overpayments. If an overpayment does occur, return the entire check and request the correct amount. Second, and this would be for rent overpayments, have an overpayment provision in your lease. Incorporating specific provisions within the lease can preemptively address and prevent rent overpayment scams. You want your lease to state something to the effect of excess funds will be applied to future rent or all overpayments will be returned at the end of the lease. Some other tips are to wait for the check to clear before considering any refund. You want to make sure the check has thoroughly cleared, a process that may extend beyond the bank's initial confirmation of available funds, due to legal requirements on funds availability. This means that the money is in your account for three to five business days. And lastly, if the check is for a security deposit, consider cashing checks and waiting for them to clear before granting tenants property access.

Stacie: 30:08

we do realize many of you do not accept checks any longer, but there are still a majority of landlords who only accept checks and do not process anything electronically. which would completely mitigate this whole issue. So we have mentioned this before, but we use QuickBooks. And for a new payee on our account profile, it takes up to five business days before we even see those funds because they are verifying the information for us. We can easily send someone invoice for them to pay electronically. Then the funds go directly into our checking account and they get posted to the correct account on our accounting ledger, making tax time a breeze. So we'll link QuickBooks in the show notes if you want to check them out. I think we have a deal with them right now where our listeners get 30 percent off your first six months. So if you're looking to streamline your bookkeeping, check them out. And another way is through using landlord software. We have several that we work with, but if you want to get rent payments electronically for free, we suggest you check out TurboTenant. It costs nothing to create an account and within a few minutes of your time, you can create a site for each of your rental properties and set up electronic payments to receive rents, application fees, security deposits, everything. So that's another good option that we will link in the show notes for you.

Kevin: 31:30

Yeah, I mean those are great points. Thanks for chiming in on that one.

Stacie: 31:34

You're welcome.

Kevin: 31:35

So you guys what we really want all you to do is make sure you do thorough background checks. Now if you are concerned about someone's identity being valid, there are companies out there that can do this for you. Then once verified you can feel a bit more confident moving forward with your application process. I think one is called Proof. This is a site that verifies someone's identity by scanning their photo live, not accepting an uploaded photo.

Stacie: 32:05

I had to do that when I sold the house in Chico. Because everything was done remotely. I had to go on to one of those sites and move my head around multiple times to get that photo to take. It was kind of like when you buy a new iphone and you have to set up your face id.

Kevin: 32:19

Oh, oh interesting. I didn't even know about that, huh? But yeah, there are a few of those verify ID sites out there. Now, we're not associated with any of them. So do make sure you do your due diligence before signing up for anything. But the point is to be thorough. Just calling the numbers off the applications really doesn't fly anymore. You do need to look them up and see if you can find their number. And there are services that charge, I think, like a buck, so it's not that expensive. And a lot of property managers have contracts with these companies to verify if a phone number given to you was valid or not. But, yeah, if you can, try to verify if the number is correct. One thing landlords can do is ask for the wrong person. So if someone is trying to scam you and they list Bob as their previous landlord they are giving your phone number to the person answering the call so they know when they are supposed to lie. So, let's say you want to call Landlord Bob and instead ask for James, or transpose the numbers of the address to see if they correct you. Try to be like super overly friendly and ask the landlord a bunch of personal questions about the property, like, Hey, I looked up your rental property online. I love that gray or beige or whatever color your rental is painted. Can you tell me what brand and color that is? Or I love the red or blue door you painted. It's so chic and see what they say. If you say you love the bold color of the door and the door is actually wood and the person you're talking to doesn't correct you, you might be dealing with a scammer. If they correct you, you know, just play stupid and say, Oh, I'm sorry, that's the other landlord on the app. Sorry about that. And just move on with your regular questions. If you get a property management company, they usually will ask you to send them your questions along with proof of authorization. Do yourself a favor and Google the management company and call that number, not the number given on the application. One small, quick, free step to take, and as mentioned before, the same goes with the employer.

Stacie: 34:27

All right, you guys, we're winding down here. The last thing we want to address is how to try and avoid someone stealing your marketing ad. And the best way for that is to watermark your photos, and you can do this on Canva. You can do it in Word as well. You just take the image and simply place your name or your company name over the front of the photo and change the color to white or light gray or whatever shade won't block the whole image, but makes it obvious something is there. This will really deter someone from taking it because they're going to pose as someone else, not you. And it's not foolproof, but it's going to make a scammer want to just move on to another ad. The other thing you want to do is Google the address of your rental a couple times a day. If someone steals it and places it on the market for a lower amount, it's going to get a lot of traction. And that traction is going to cause it to show up first online, likely above your actual ad. Okay, that's it for what potential fraud you need to be on the lookout for when accepting applications. And listen, you guys, there is no one size fits all approach when solving fraud. Ultimately, multi layered identity based fraud solutions create efficient processes for applications and peace of mind for landlords. Do what you can to be vigilant when you have a vacancy. These scammers are looking for landlords who are not paying attention to the details. And all they need is one. Don't be that one. So that's our show for today. Thanks so much for tuning in and listening to all we have to say. This episode today was more to bring awareness as we do understand most of our self managing landlords process their own applications. And as you add more units, you will process them more often, making you more aware. So just do your best, you guys.

Kevin: 36:18

And let me jump in here real quick and let everyone know that this is why we are putting together a course on placing your ideal tenant. I mean there are so many things you need to know and to think about. And the cost of the course will be less than hiring a property manager to place someone for you. So consider getting on our waiting list to get information about the course. We will link that in the show notes.

Stacie: 36:41

Thank you very much for that. This course has been something we have wanted to do for some time now. And yeah, there will be a whole module on fraud and what to look for. And hey you guys if you like what you hear on this podcast, would you do us a favor and subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast platform? This way our episodes will be there waiting for you every week so you can enjoy all we have to say about landlording and owning rental properties. And we would be super appreciative if you could leave us a kind review. Those reviews really help other landlords like you know that we're the real deal and hopefully they'll listen too. Links to review the sites are in our show notes. If you'd like to download any of the free forms we offer, or if you want to sign up for our free weekly newsletter, you can access those in the show notes as well. If you'd like to follow along, you can find us on Instagram and Facebook, and we have a private Facebook group as well. You can find all the links in our show notes. Thanks again for taking time out of your day to listen to our podcast. And until next time, you've got this landlords.