Topic: How important are landlord references to you?

I have been having a somewhat increasingly hard time getting them. Last week I had a company tell me they don't give out references but would send me a print out of their rent payment history. There is only so much info our background checks give or CCAP (court info system) gives. I put a lot of stock in them, especially since I'm dealing with my nightmare tenant who we are now evicting. I'd really like to know if my future tenant is clean, respectful and not going to threaten me on a regular basis or call the city with baseless claims constantly.

I think they are worthless. I have had people who seemed fine only to move out and leave a disaster.
And I’ve had people who I just wanted gone so I answered the questions carefully

so they are worthless unless someone really wants to get rid of a bad tenant, No one is totally honest anymore it seems. Just very frustrating because when I get a request, it gets answered and faxed the same day because why should I hold up someone's approval or denial. but then again, the world is changing. Ya just never know what to expect.

When I said seemed fine. I meant that I answered the questions given , paid rent in time, were quiet and the moved out and I wished I could have now warned someone

i hear ya on that. sometimes I feel like I should do a psych eval on applicants. lol...we now started asking a question, did applicant get along with management. Not sure if that will help. I put more faith in that than did they ever have bed bugs, sometimes.....

You really never know. I always answer the referrals correct as I hoped they would. All we can do is our best in screening and backgrounds. Just because tenants were angels before, doesn’t mean they will always be and vice versus.

I think that most reference checks (resident/credit/employment) are useless because most are fearful that releasing any more information than verifying what you are given by your applicant constitutes some sort of privacy protection privilege..... if there is some sort of public access database that would include information about if a resident left owing money, but weren't evicted, that would be a good thing....

I suggest looking for their social media posts on all platforms. Google search their names along with Yellow and White pages.

We do the last three years but I have had managers completely lie on them to get an eviction out

I just look for facts. Dates, balances, history of complaints.

If their credit comes back clear, I don’t ask for rental reference. If it’s iffy, I want to see the facts. How long did they live there, how many lates/NSFs, lease violations.

We require them and use them in our process

often times one persons opinion will differ from anothers as to how they feel about the tenant

I won’t move forward without extra deposit if I ca t get a rental reference. Remember, it costs more to evict than to screen properly!

Larger management companies do not require them and rely on qualifying criteria of income and credit.

They wont usually tell you if it is bad. At least we were never allowed. We werw only allowed to answer dates and times late

We stopped doing rental references portfolio wide about 5 years ago. If their screening however comes back conditional, we do the rental reference.

I do rental reference for everyone one. They could pay on time and have great credit but did they have unauthorized occupants, unauthorized pets, noise complaints etc??! Those are some of the questions that was on our rental history request. I would send 3 times and then just make the decision. If it was conditional I would let the resident know I couldn't approve their app until I got that back. The other place eventually called.

They are not very reliable

Statistically they are not a reliable predictor of payment history

They are unreliable indicators. If you have a tenant that has caused issues for your management company and you receive a call regarding a rental reference, what are you going to do? Most likely give a positive reference so that tenant can move out of your community. Depending on your screening provider, the background check that is performed is the best indicator for forecasting future performance.

Do not do them. Credit report and income are determining factors

I put a lot of stock in credit reports. My gut has never been wrong about them and I've learned the hard way to follow it. If they aren't paying their other bills then they either aren't going to pay you, or their wages will be taken and then they can't.
Never trust a reference from a current landlord. They may be trying to get rid of them. I also look up the address and phone number on Google myself and see if it's an actual place with the right business number and not their friend.

We rarely get rental verifications sent to us. Which tells me: 1. putting different addresses on applications. or 2. other apts are not checking current or previous rental. OR both... who knows.

To me they are very important but we have a difficult time getting others to send them back to us and I rarely get them anymore for my residents that are moving! If someone has horrible credit but great rental history then that tells me their priorities are in order and I'd lease to them!

With some of mine, if I don't hear back I'll just call and leave a message for them to just text me back and answer these 2 questions. Did they pay on time, and would you rent to them again? It's not a lot of info, but if either of them are a no then that's all I need to know.

My owner doesn't allow us to give rental references. The only thing we're allowed to say is if they left us in good standing or not. We use their credit history to determine their security deposit.