Facebook check up of Applicants - Landlord Forum thread

Facebook check up of Applicants by Anonymous on March 31, 2012 @22:58

Please do not laugh. I have never used or gone on facebook and am clueless. If I try to go to someone's FB to do a bit of snooping on a rental applicant, will they know about it or do they have to approve me before I can view their FB info?

Thanks, June

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Re: Facebook check up of Applicants by Jack (NY) on March 31, 2012 @23:10	[ Reply ]

I do it when I can. Sometimes you need to have friend access to see anything useful, but I've been lucky a couple of times when the applicant has all the info public.

Re: Facebook check up of Applicants by FL-LL on April 1, 2012 @12:58	[ Reply ]

My hubby checks up on tenants occassionlly. It can be a valuble tool. Here's a story from last fall. Tenants been with us well over a year. They split up. He moved out. Two months later she was short on rent. She was going to get it to us in the next week. When she didn't... Hubby checks her FB page...found out she had met someone new, out of state. Had given 2 months notice to her job. Planning on moving out of state. Sure enough next month rolls around and she doesn't have remainder of the back rent or present rent (car repair). B/c of the FB info we knew to post the P/Q. No way she could get caught up before she was unemplyed and moving out of state. When we didn't get the keys back, but knew she had moved, I contacted her about the keys via FB. She replied letting me know that the keys were on the counter. If we hadn't have known her plans and b/c she had been with us for over a year, we would have been tempted to work with her. Instead she moved out owing us less than a half months rent.

Re: Facebook check up of Applicants by Bill (NYS) on April 1, 2012 @20:53	[ Reply ]

Found out about tenants new home-based business, pets (photos posted), and even found some disparaging remarks about their landlord (me) on their facebook page...needless to say, they are no longer tenants of mine.