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    • Technology

    Checking tenants on social media

    Replies 7 Views 1.8K Activity 4 months ago Users 7
    Go to first unread post
    lucieupad 27 Jan 2017 at 15:30

    We saw this article today: http://www.homesandproperty.co.uk/proper...07576.html

    The gist is that some letting agents admit to checking prospective tenant’s social media accounts as part of their vetting and referencing process. They claim it’s to check they are who they say they are and protect against fraud, but do you think this is overly intrusive?

    Do you check potential tenants’ social media accounts? General thoughts on others doing this?

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    http://www.upad.co.uk/online-letting-agents

    ryancarruthers919 12 Jul 2017 at 08:24

    I do this, I've found it's worked really well especially when you have that feeling about a tenant who is going into a room that just didn't sit right when they were on the phone.

    People share a lot about themselves on their public profiles, it does help in my opinion when checking to see who they are, where they work etc... I've had a tenant before claim to be working for one company then I saw on their profile an argument with their old boss about why they sacked them!

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    Vanessa Warwick 12 Jul 2017 at 08:32

    Hi Lucie,

    I think checking social media - that is in the public domain - is a great way of doing additional referencing.

    For instance, you can check via LinkedIn to see if they have been in their job as long as they claim, you can check via Facebook if they have any potentially disruptive hobbies such as playing the drums (!).

    See - Using Social Media To Reference Tenants 

    Using social networks to vet, monitor, or track down tenants? 

    I hope social media is also used in this context:

    ​Tenants to start vetting Landlords ... ?!

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    Vanessa Warwick Landlord and Co-Founder of PropertyTribes.com **If you have got value from Property Tribes, find out how you can support it in remaining a free to use community resource**

    Beth44 12 Jul 2017 at 08:37

    I think that anyone using Facebook is foolish to put their personal info in the public profile.  It's quite easy to make your FB private through the available privacy settings.  

    Don't know about the other social media, I don't use them.  But my FB is for me and my family and close friends on the other side of the world to catch up on our day to day doings, which would not only be of little interest to anyone else, it's also none of their business.

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    Vanessa Warwick 18 Sep 2018 at 09:45

    One in nine landlords now check prospective tenants’ social media accounts to try to assess how they may behave as renters, according to a mortgage lender.

    Research for Foundation Home Loans suggests that 11 per cent of landlords now look at some permutation of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram to find out about their would-be tenants.

    Full/source article

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    Vanessa Warwick Landlord and Co-Founder of PropertyTribes.com **If you have got value from Property Tribes, find out how you can support it in remaining a free to use community resource**


    Johnta7 18 Sep 2018 at 10:06

    Only one in nine? Given how easy it is to check social media I find that ridiculous. Why would you not check?

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    Michael_Brown 18 Sep 2018 at 12:39

    We have been doing this for sometime, we check how we would anticipate there before in our rented property. comments like just finished my spliff and waiting for mates to arrive to have a big party" are not looked on favorably.

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    [Image: New-logo2.png] Manchester based investor. I buy, sell, renovate and rent investment property in East/North Manchester Wink email: mike@brentwoodinvestments.co.uk Call: 0161 681 3724

    ElaineOneandOnlyPro 11 Oct 2018 at 15:59

    This is a good thread and I've never thought about this before. In today's society everyone is on social media, but their online presence may not be who they are in real life. We've had a debate in the office about it and we feel like while you could get a feel for a person it may not be who they really are.

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