Protect clients from becoming victims of rental fraud

Nearly 1.4 million U.S. homes have been foreclosed on to date, according to the real estate monitoring firm RealtyTrac.

The residential rental market has seen a dramatic increase in the number of families deciding to rent rather than purchase their homes. This trend has attracted scammers and con artists to commit rental fraud.

A website launched earlier this year called Checkyourlandlord.com was designed to protect renters from rental scams or foreclosures. The site allows renters to perform background checks on their prospective landlords to see if they actually own the property and have no financial issues.

“As we developed the CheckYourLandlord.com service, we realized that much of the same information could be highly valuable to real estate agencies,” said creator and general manager Michael Schaffer.

Schaffer says Realtors® in today’s market often look for new ways to build long-term relationships with clients and find themselves in the position of being a renter’s agent.

“Realtors® are aggressively seeking business in this tumultuous market and may expend time and money marketing properties whose owners have not been upfront about their loan status,” he said.

Schaffer says in most cases property owners are not required to disclose to potential renters if the property is in default. Renters aren’t exempt to foreclosure. When landlords default on their mortgage, tenants could be forced out of a place to live.

“By offering your rental clients a CheckYourLandlord.com comprehensive landlord verification report, they will have peace of mind they are making a smart rental decision and proof you are deserving of their trust and future business,” he added.

A typical landlord verification report gives the following information:

• Verification the landlord actually owns the property
• Determines if there are any notices of default, pending foreclosure actions or adverse liens against the property
• Obtains information on any additional owners of the property
• Checks for prior civil and criminal actions, bankruptcies, liens and judgments against the landlord.

“Potential tenants can’t run credit checks on a landlord,” said Schaffer. “We provide the next best thing to running credit checks. We legitimately obtain public records and it doesn’t require permission of the property owner.”

Information available from these reports will vary by state but includes a criminal check, tax liens on the property and bankruptcies filed. As a public service, Checkyourlandlord.com offers renters the ability to check for pre-foreclosure notice on a property for free.

“Today’s renter is tomorrow’s buyer,” he said. “Show your clients they are important to you and they will become buying clients.”