Verifying Landlords Before Renting

[nioka]

I am about to lose my house to foreclosure. I have been looking and found a few houses by private landlords.
I wonder how people verify the person showing the house is the actual owner.
I know to check tax records but is there anything else one can do before turning over lots of money?

[kornellred]

The first thing to do would be to confront the person showing the property. If they are not the owner, then ask to speak to the owner and verify the identity of the person showing the property. Make initial payment via certified bank check negotiable only by the owner of record and make sure you have the keys to the house in your possession before you hand the check over. Also, check with nearby neighbors - they can often be helpful in identifying hustlers.

[justbroke]

I always check two things. The public record to make sure that the person renting the home to me, is the person that owns the home. Second, I check the court records to make sure there is no foreclosure proceeding pending.

If the person that is renting the property is not the owner or there are other indicators showing that this would not work (e.g. foreclosure "lis pendens" filed), then I would not proceed with the lease.

I have also used public information to find the owner's contact information and contacted the owner by phone. I did this for a friend and we found out that the person trying to lease the property was not the owner. The owner had no idea! They actually had the home listed for sale and not for lease. It was a scam.

If the deal seems to good to be true, it's probably a scam.