Real tenant screening examples that show why landlords should always verify rental applications carefully
Sometimes people bend the truth, leave out important details, or present themselves in the best possible light.
That tends to happen even more when someone wants something badly—like your rental property.
As a landlord, tenant screening is one of the most important parts of protecting your investment. I’m not going to dive into every step of our screening process in this post, but I do want to share a few real-world examples from past applicants. Some are humorous, some are surprising, and all of them reinforce the same lesson:
Do your homework.
1. Background Checks Don’t Always Tell the Full Story
We use Zillow for online rental applications. It’s convenient, widely used by renters, and provides a solid starting point for screening.
Recently, we received an application from someone who was an “okay” candidate. Income was sufficient, credit was a little lower than we prefer, and the background check came back clear.
Still, I decided to do one extra check through Pennsylvania’s online court records system.
The applicant’s name came up with a recent criminal charge—and it was serious: assault and strangulation. Because the charge had only occurred about 30 days earlier, it had not yet appeared on the standard background report.
That extra step gave us information we needed before entering a situation we didn’t want to manage.
Lesson: Screening tools are helpful, but they are not always current or complete.
2. “I Always Pay On Time”
One applicant wrote the following in an online application:
“I’m responsible and my payments are always on time! I’ve never been on a lease but my bills are always on time!”
They were very confident about it.
After reviewing the credit report, we found a history of 31 late payments and 0 on-time payments across two loans.
That tells a very different story than what was presented on the application.
Lesson: Always verify financial claims with actual documentation.
3. How Many Cats Is Too Many Cats?
We manage our own rental properties and generally consider ourselves pet-friendly. But pet approvals are handled on a case-by-case basis.
We allow cats—but we once had applicants with four cats.
For us, that crossed the line.
From our experience, cat urine odor can be one of the hardest and most expensive issues to remediate after move-out. Even responsible pet owners can create additional wear, damage, or odor over time—especially with multiple animals in one property.
If you’re unsure about approving pets, it can be helpful to call the previous landlord and ask whether there were any pet-related issues. You can also require a pet deposit or charge pet fees where legally allowed.
Lesson: Pets can be manageable, but the level of risk depends on the specific situation.
Final Takeaway
The application is only the starting point.
Verify income. Verify employment. Review credit history and run background checks. Call references.
Tenant screening will never be perfect, but the goal isn’t perfection—it’s reducing risk and making the best decision possible for your property.
Thanks for reading this week’s Experience, and best of luck in your real estate investing journey!
-BROCK