Honesty is always the best policy

Yes, honesty is always the best policy. Now I don't mean if you think an outfit someone is wearing looks bad to suggest they audition for "What not to wear". I mean when you are looking to rent, lease or buy a house and you fill out an application... tell the truth. We recently were leasing a house to some real nice prospective folks. All was looking great. Manners, well spoken, neat, clean, intelligent, jobs, non smokers... all good things. Then they filled out the application and put down a false Landlord. We do not perform a background check, however, we base the deposit on rental history and character. During our background check, we discovered an eviction from their current house. They attempted to conceal the eviction by using a false landlord. Lying on an application for a Florida rental is FRAUD and that is against the law. Plus, when you are looking to enter into a relationship with a property manager, home owner, Landlord... you want the relationship be honest on both accounts. You would expect your Landlord NOT to lie to you... right? Well then, there ya have it.

Oh, and by the way, lying on a mortgage application is even worse. The maximum penalties that mortgage fraud can bring. You’d have to do something really bad to get 30 years in a federal penitentiary and $1,000,000 in fines.

So, remember folks, honesty is the best policy.

All the best in 2019.

Matthew Baransy

www.BaransyProperties.com

Licensed Real Estate Agent / Realtor