If you own rental property in Long Beach, you already know the applicant pool moves fast. Good units in 90803 or 90808 attract applications within 48 hours, and the pressure to place someone quickly is real. That pressure is exactly where things go sideways — and it usually starts with the reference check. Most landlords treat it like a formality. A quick call, a vague “yeah, they were fine,” and the lease gets signed. But if you’re thinking about your tenant screening process as a series of steps with equal weight, the reference call deserves far more of your attention than most owners give it.
This post covers what a real reference check looks like, what questions actually matter, and where landlords consistently leave themselves exposed.
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In This Guide
Income Verification Won’t Save You If You Skip the Reference Call
Here’s a take you don’t hear often enough: most owners have the priority completely backwards.
The 3x income rule gets obsessed over. Landlords run credit, verify employment, count pay stubs. All of that matters. But a tenant making $7,000 a month who consistently pays 45 days late, keeps unauthorized pets, or disputes every clause in the lease is a far bigger headache than someone earning $6,200 a month with a clean two-year rental history.
Income tells you if they *can* pay. A landlord reference tells you if they *will* — and what life looks like on a Tuesday when something breaks.
We’ve talked to owners who found this out the hard way. A client we’ve worked with for about four years mentioned that before partnering with Jesus Saucedo and the team here, they had no formal reference-check process. One question, a vague positive answer, move on. That approach twice resulted in tenants with undisclosed eviction histories that only surfaced after the lease was already signed.
The One Reference You Should Trust Least
This is the contrarian one, and it surprises a lot of people.
A glowing reference from the applicant’s *current* landlord is the one to be most skeptical of. Think about it from that landlord’s perspective. If they have a problem tenant right now, a stellar reference is their best shot at getting that tenant into someone else’s building. They have every incentive to make that call go smoothly.
The most reliable references come from landlords the applicant rented under one or two tenancies ago. Those landlords have nothing to gain. They’re not trying to move anyone out. Their answer is just their honest experience.
We factor this into how Julian Clark, our leasing agent, structures reference outreach. It’s not just “call the most recent landlord and check the box.” It’s a deliberate sequence, and the older reference often tells you more.
What to Actually Ask on a Reference Call
Yes/no questions are nearly useless. “Was this a good tenant?” will get you “yes” 90% of the time regardless of reality.
The questions that surface real information are specific and behavioral:
- Payment timing: “Did they pay on time consistently, or were there months where you had to follow up?”
- Property condition: “How did they leave the unit compared to how they received it?”
- Communication style: “How did they typically report maintenance issues? Did anything get concealed that turned into a bigger repair?”
- Lease compliance: “Were there any lease violations? Unauthorized occupants or pets?”
- Re-rent: “Would you rent to them again without hesitation?”
That last one. Listen to the pause before the answer.
Reference calls typically run 10 to 15 minutes when done properly. Skipping one to speed up placement by a day or two is the most common false economy in leasing. California’s eviction process in Los Angeles County, with court backlogs factored in, can run four to six months on a contested case. A 15-minute call versus a potential $6,000 in lost rent is not a close call.
Under AB 1482 and Los Angeles County’s just cause eviction rules, removing a bad tenant after move-in becomes significantly harder and more expensive once those protections attach. The reference call is one of the last clean opportunities to screen someone out before that happens.
Property-Specific Questions That Catch Fake References
We’ve seen this more than once. An owner in our portfolio once tried to verify a prior address listed on an application. The “landlord” they reached couldn’t name the street the property was on.
That’s not a subtle red flag. But you’d miss it entirely if you’re asking yes/no questions.
Julian is trained to ask property-specific detail questions during reference calls — things like unit layout, building amenities, or parking situation. A real prior landlord can answer these cold. Someone who’s been coached, or who is actually the applicant’s friend running a favor, stumbles on specifics.
This is one reason we cross-reference verbal references against AppFolio screening data. If the address on the application doesn’t match what’s in the background report, or if the “landlord” being called is at a number that traces back to the applicant’s own household, that inconsistency surfaces quickly.
Written Reference Letters Are Not References
A written reference letter is a piece of paper an applicant hands you. That’s it.
We worked with an owner on a multi-family property in the Wilmington area who approved a tenant based on a glowing written letter. No live call. The letter had been written by the applicant themselves. The tenant was removed via unlawful detainer six months later, and the total cost — attorney fees, lost rent, turnover — ran past $5,500.
One long-term client put it simply when reviewing their experience here: “Our house looks better now than it did when we left in 2021.” That’s the result of a process that starts before the lease is ever signed.
Always make the live call. Always.
Fair Housing Rules Apply to Reference Checks Too
This is an area where owners get into trouble without realizing it.
California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act and the federal Fair Housing Act both cover the reference-checking process. Questions to a prior landlord cannot elicit information about protected characteristics — familial status, disability, national origin, and others.
What that means practically:
- Ask about tenancy performance, not personal circumstances
- Ask about lease compliance, not lifestyle or household composition
- Ask about property condition at move-out, not reasons for moving
If a prior landlord volunteers protected class information unprompted, don’t engage it. Move the conversation back to objective tenancy history. A tenant lawyer in Long Beach who knows Fair Housing law can turn an otherwise avoidable misstep into a costly complaint, so the boundaries here matter.
Stick to performance-based questions. Payment history, property condition, lease compliance, re-rent decision. Everything else creates exposure.
Multi-Family Properties Carry Higher Stakes
In a single-family home, a bad tenant affects one unit. In a 4-plex or 8-unit building — and there are a lot of those across Carson, Compton, and Lynwood — one bad tenant affects everyone.
Noise complaints, unauthorized occupants, visible drug activity. These issues spread. They affect renewals from good tenants in adjacent units. They affect how prospective tenants feel when they tour the building. A single bad placement in a multi-family property can move your effective vacancy rate for that year well past 15%.
We manage right around 500 properties across Long Beach and the surrounding areas. Even at a 1% bad-placement rate, that’s five problem tenancies per cycle, each potentially running $3,000 to $8,000 in eviction costs, lost rent, and turnover expenses. The numbers make a strong case for doing the reference call right every single time.
For Section 8 and HUD voucher tenants specifically, reference checks should also confirm whether the prior landlord experienced any compliance holds that delayed payment. HQS inspections and voucher verification add a layer of process that prior landlords can speak to, and that history matters when you’re planning your cash flow.
When the Market Pressure Gets Real
In high-demand zip codes here in Long Beach like 90803 and 90807, application volume runs high. We’ve watched owners feel the pressure to move fast, skip steps, and later regret it.
One owner we work with self-managed a single-family home for years before bringing it to CMC. A prior tenant had provided a reference from someone posing as a landlord — actually a friend. The tenant was evicted 14 months in after $4,200 in unpaid rent and left behind an unauthorized dog that caused roughly $1,800 in flooring damage. When situations like that come up, Sussy Espinoza, our maintenance coordinator, works with vendors like R3 Pros to get properties turned around as fast as possible — but nobody wants to be in that position if it can be avoided.
Tools like Showdigs help us manage high-volume applicant pipelines without cutting corners on verification. The volume problem is real. The solution is process, not shortcuts.
If reference checking feels like it’s taking longer than it should, or the results you’re getting feel inconsistent, we’re open to a conversation about how we approach it.
FAQ
How many references should I contact for a rental applicant?
We recommend reaching out to at least two prior landlords, with a preference for the landlord from one to two tenancies ago over the current one. One solid reference from a landlord who has nothing at stake tells you more than two enthusiastic calls from someone who wants their tenant gone.
Can a landlord refuse to give a reference for a former tenant?
Yes. Some landlords simply say they have a policy of not providing references. That itself isn’t a red flag, but a pattern of unreachable or unresponsive prior landlords on an application is worth noting. Document your attempts and factor the lack of verifiable history into your overall decision.
What questions are off-limits during a tenant reference call?
Under the Fair Housing Act and California’s FEHA, you can’t ask questions that reveal protected class information. Avoid anything about familial status, disability, national origin, religion, race, color, or sex. Keep questions focused on payment history, property condition, lease compliance, and whether the landlord would rent to the applicant again.
What if the phone number for a prior landlord matches the applicant’s own contact info?
That’s a significant red flag and a common fraud pattern. Cross-referencing the number against background report data, property records, or a basic search often surfaces the discrepancy. Our leasing agent Julian uses AppFolio screening data alongside verbal references specifically to catch inconsistencies like this.
Does a strong credit score mean I can skip the landlord reference?
No. Credit scores measure debt repayment behavior, not rental behavior. We’ve seen applicants with scores above 700 who had a history of lease violations, property damage, and unauthorized occupants. Credit is one data point. The landlord reference is a different data point, and you need both.
How do reference checks work differently for Section 8 tenants?
The core questions are the same, but you should also ask prior landlords whether there were any compliance holds on the voucher or delays in HUD payments during the tenancy. A history of inspection failures or payment disruptions at a prior property can signal administrative issues that carry over, and it’s useful information to have before you sign a Housing Assistance Payment contract.