Most landlords treat reference calls like a formality. They dial the number, ask if the tenant was “a good renter,” get a “yes,” and move on. Lease signed.
That approach has cost property owners in this market thousands of dollars. Sometimes tens of thousands.
If you own a rental property and you’ve ever wondered whether reference checks are really worth the extra hour of your time, this post is for you. We manage 712 properties across Northwest Florida, and we see the downstream effects of skipped or rushed reference calls constantly. The patterns are hard to miss at that scale.
“We manage 712 properties across Northwest Florida, and we see the downstream effects of skipped or rushed reference calls constantly.”
We’ll cover what good reference calls actually ask, what red flags sound like in practice, what a “glowing” reference sometimes really means, and why credit scores alone are not the screening shortcut most owners think they are.
In This Guide
Why Reference Calls Get Rushed (and Why That’s Expensive)
Vacancy pressure is real. In Fort Walton Beach, average rents run somewhere in the $1,800–$2,800 range depending on property type, and every week a unit sits empty is money gone. Owners feel that. So when a promising applicant shows up with a solid credit score and a tidy application, the temptation to move fast is strong.
We get it. But skipping the reference call trades a short-term problem for a potentially much larger one.
We worked with an owner who rented a single-family home here and skipped calling the applicant’s previous landlord because the credit score looked strong. Six months later, we discovered three unauthorized adults living in the property, none of them on the lease. The enforcement process dragged on for two months. A quick reference call to the prior landlord would have surfaced the same pattern — because it had already happened at the previous property.
The math on eviction alone should be enough to slow you down. Florida’s eviction process can take several weeks from start to finish, and landlords should budget for court filing fees starting around $185–$400 plus attorney costs that can push total expenses well into the hundreds or more.. That’s before you factor in lost rent and any damage left behind.
Credit Score vs. Rental History: Which One Actually Predicts Tenant Behavior?
Here’s a contrarian take we stand behind: rental history is a stronger predictor of tenant behavior than credit score.
Credit scores measure how someone handles debt. A landlord reference measures how someone treats a home, pays rent, and behaves inside a lease. Those are not the same thing.
A tenant with a 680 credit score and two landlords who confirm consistent on-time payments, clean move-outs, and zero lease violations is a stronger candidate than a 740-score applicant whose references are vague, unverifiable, or suspiciously brief.
We’ve talked to owners who focused almost entirely on the credit number and waved references through without much scrutiny. That’s where the problems tend to show up: unauthorized pets, unauthorized occupants, property damage, repeated late rent. Florida Statute 83.56 authorizes landlords to issue a 3-Day Notice to Pay or Vacate when rent is overdue, giving tenants three days — excluding weekends and legal holidays — to pay or vacate before the landlord may proceed with eviction. — but the better outcome is knowing before you sign the lease that late payment was a pattern to begin with.
A high credit score does not mean a good tenant. Landlord references tell you how this person actually lived in and paid for their last home. That’s the data point that matters.
How to Verify That the Reference Is Actually Real
This is where a lot of owners get burned, and it’s simpler to prevent than you’d think.
An owner in the Niceville area accepted a tenant based on a written reference letter the applicant provided themselves. The phone number for the “landlord” connected to a friend’s cell. The tenant eventually left after eight months with $3,200 in property damage and two months of unpaid rent. The deposit didn’t cover it.
The fix is independent verification. Here’s the process we follow:
- Cross-check the number. Don’t just call the number provided. Look up the property address in public records to confirm who actually owns it, then find contact information independently.
- Verify ownership history. County property records are public. If the applicant claims they rented from John Smith at 123 Oak Street, you can confirm whether John Smith owns or owned that property.
- Ask for the property address, not just a name. Any real prior landlord knows the address. If an applicant hesitates on that detail, that’s a flag.
Steven Rodriguez, our Director of Property Management, runs every reference check with this verification step built in. It takes maybe ten extra minutes and has saved our clients from situations like the one above more than once.
What Questions to Actually Ask on the Reference Call
Most people ask one question: “Was this a good tenant?” That question is almost useless because almost every reference will say yes.
Here’s what you should be asking instead:
- “Would you rent to them again?” This is the most important question on the call. It’s direct and harder to dodge than vague positive statements.
- “Were rent payments consistently on time?” Ask specifically. Don’t accept “mostly” or “generally” without a follow-up.
- “Were there any lease violations during the tenancy?” Unauthorized pets and unauthorized occupants both tend to appear here.
- “What was the condition of the property at move-out?” Prior damage patterns often repeat.
- “Why did they leave?” Voluntary move-out, non-renewal, or something else?
- “How long did they live there?” Cross-reference this with what the applicant told you. Gaps or discrepancies matter.
You’re looking for hesitation, vague answers, and changes in tone just as much as you’re listening to the actual words.
The Current Landlord Problem
A glowing reference from the current landlord is sometimes the most suspicious one you’ll get.
If a tenant has been a problem, a chronic late payer, or has caused repeated issues, their current landlord may give a rave review. Not because it’s true. Because they want that tenant gone and would genuinely love for them to become someone else’s problem.
Smart screening accounts for this. Call the prior landlord, not just the current one. The landlord before the current one has no motivation to spin anything. They’re done with this person. They’ll tell you the truth.
And when you do call the current landlord, ask the direct question: “Would you rent to them again?” Most people won’t lie outright to that one.
If a current landlord is enthusiastic about a tenant but pauses — or gives a non-answer — on “would you rent to them again?”, treat that as a serious red flag. That hesitation is the real reference.
How Many Prior Landlords Should You Contact?
At minimum, two. Ideally, you want to go back three to five years, not just the most recent tenancy.
This matters especially in the Northwest Florida market. Military tenants from Eglin AFB and Hurlburt AFB rotate frequently, which means their rental history may span multiple states. Don’t skip an out-of-state landlord just because it feels inconvenient. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act allows military tenants to terminate a lease early due to PCS orders by providing written notice, with the termination taking effect 30 days after the next rental payment due date following that notice., so a short tenancy isn’t automatically a red flag. But a short tenancy combined with an uncontactable landlord reference is a different story.
Also worth noting: seasonal workers and tourism-industry employees are common applicants in this area. Someone who rented a vacation property on 30A is not the same reference situation as a long-term lease tenant. A reference from an Airbnb host should be weighed differently. We flag that distinction in every review we run through our screening process.
What Happens When You Skip This Step
An owner came to us after self-managing a property in Mary Esther. The applicant had a clean-looking application, but the prior landlord in Alabama was never contacted. As it turned out, that tenant had been evicted from the previous property. The owner spent $1,800 in legal fees and lost $3,400 in rent before regaining possession.
That entire situation might have been avoided with one phone call.
We use PetScreening as part of our standard process, which handles pet history and flags undisclosed animals before move-in. But the human side of the call — the actual conversation with a prior landlord — is irreplaceable. No software does that for you.
Property damage from problem tenants in our portfolio runs anywhere from $1,500 to $8,000 or more depending on property type. Florida law does not cap the amount landlords can charge for a security deposit, though most landlords charge the equivalent of one to two months’ rent., which on a $2,000 rental is $4,000. That sounds like protection, but if the damage runs $6,000 and the reference call was skipped, you’re still writing checks.
How Professional Management Changes the Reference Equation
One of the longest-tenured clients we’ve worked with, 20-plus years across both real estate and property management, told us the single best decision they made early on was handing all tenant screening off to our team entirely. In two decades and across multiple properties, they’ve never gone through an eviction. They attribute a lot of that to consistent, thorough screening before any lease gets signed.
One reviewer put it plainly after working with our team on their rental needs: “They provide quick and efficient service and are always pleasant and helpful.” That consistency on the management side starts at screening.
Our team cross-references landlord contact information independently, asks the questions most owners skip, and maintains a documented history of every interaction through Rentvine. Owners don’t have to chase records when something comes up — it’s already there.
Coastal Realty Services has been doing this since 1973, when Bob and Edna Hudgens founded the company after being stationed at Eglin. Military life gave them a firsthand understanding of how frequently tenants relocate in this area, and that context still shapes how we screen today. Out-of-state references get called. SCRA tenancy history gets noted. Nothing gets waved through.
If managing the reference process feels harder than it should, we’re open to a conversation about what that looks like.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many landlord references should I require from a rental applicant?
At minimum, contact two prior landlords. Three to five years of rental history is the better standard, especially in a high-turnover market like Northwest Florida where military rotations and short tenancies are common. One reference tells you almost nothing on its own.
Can a tenant provide their own landlord reference letters instead of me calling directly?
Written reference letters provided by the applicant carry very little weight on their own. They’re easy to fabricate, and there’s no way to ask follow-up questions. Always make direct contact with prior landlords using independently verified phone numbers, not just the contact information the applicant hands you.
Is a high credit score enough to approve a tenant without checking references?
No. Credit scores measure how someone handles debt. They say nothing about whether a tenant pays rent on time, respects a property, or follows lease terms. We’ve seen 740-score applicants leave significant damage behind because no one called the prior landlords.
What if the prior landlord was out of state or hard to reach?
Keep trying. In this market especially, prior landlords in Texas, Georgia, or other military hub states are common. If a landlord is completely unreachable after multiple attempts, document that and factor it into your decision. An unverifiable reference is itself a piece of information.
What’s the biggest mistake owners make when conducting reference calls?
Asking vague questions and accepting vague answers. “Were they a good tenant?” almost always gets a yes. The more useful questions are specific: Did they pay on time every month? Would you rent to them again? What was the property’s condition at move-out? How the reference answers those questions — and whether they hesitate — tells you far more than a general endorsement.
