The Things People Do. (Continued from previous.)

...Continued from previous.

One family came back three times.  Loved the house.  Loved the neighborhood.  Couldn’t commit.  A couple of shady characters.  A few looky loos from the neighborhood.  All in all, pretty positive.

My favorite one was the young couple who just found out they were pregnant and wanted to move out of their apartment.

I asked when their lease was up?  “Not for another 9 months, but don’t worry.  I have a friend that can write a letter to get us out of it.”

What did they do for work? “I am self employed.  I work with my brother and we took over my dad’s business. “  Can you verify your income.  “Well… I am self employed.”

 

They decided they wanted to apply for the house and insisted that this was the house for them.  They submitted the application and all of the paperwork.  The income verification documents looked like it was printed out from an excel worksheet.  No way to verify where the numbers came from.  No bank statements.  No tax documents.  Just a bunch of pages with numbers on it.  Plus, they printed out one page twice and forgot another

I looked up and found the owner of the house they say they rented before moving into the apartment.  The county records show that it was owned by his brother, who by chance was also listed as being his direct supervisor, and his personal reference.  So I called the brother and asked if he worked for him, yes, he is a great guy, hard worker etc.  I asked him if he owned the home at the applicants previous address.  Pause, yes, he owned the home.  I asked him if he knew the name of the person the applicant listed as his landlord, Pause, no never heard of him.  He asked why.  I told him that the applicant listed that person as his previous landlord, but you owned the home and thought that was odd, him being his brother and all.  Long pause, "he's a great guy."

So then I call his current residents.  They say yes, the couple rents and apartment in their building.  The couple seemed ok, but, there lease doesn’t run out any time soon.  I told them what he told me about the letter.  They say “OH Really….  I don’t think so.  We will talk to them next time they come in.  Do us a favor and don’t call them back till tomorrow.”

So the next day I call the applicant back back (sent a certified letter that afternoon) and tell him we can’t rent to the them.  “Umm….  Why?”  No verifiable income.  Currently in a Lease. “OK.”  Click.

Seriously, did they not think that I would follow up or that I was asking these things on the application just for fun?  The whole point of the process is the weed out people who are not going to pay, cannot pay, or would destroy the property.  And if your going to lie to me right from the get go, how can I trust you with my home, my huge investment.