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I am planning to rent a place in either Portland OR or Vancouver WA from a "private" landlord. I am coming from overseas and will probably end up paying six months of rent in advance on top of a security deposit. How can I verify a person's authority to sign a lease as a landlord? Are there some sort of ownership registers open to public inquiries? If an owner is married, does his/her spouse have to sign a lease as well (as co-owner)?
for a 6 month lease, I recommend you lease in an apartment complex with a professional manager in place.
Most landlords don't like to take rent in advance.
To answer your question regarding the verification of who owns a property, typically the taxing authority will have a listing of property owners by address. In Texas we have County Appraisal Districts. If, for example, I want to look up the name of an owner in Dallas county, I would go to the Dallas County Appraisal District website. You will find similar kinds of things in other states.
Renting from a management company is not an option for me - I have no credit history, no rental history and no job.
This is going to be very difficult as even private landlords who may not do an extensive background cheque usually at least check employment and prior landlord references. Are you a US citizen, are you eligible to seek employment in the US, do you have a social security number?
With no valid history you would be better off staying in an extended stay motel or other boarding establishment until you get settled. If the answer to the previous questions is no then that's something else entirely.
I am planning to rent a place in either Portland OR or Vancouver WA from a "private" landlord. I am coming from overseas and will probably end up paying six months of rent in advance on top of a security deposit. How can I verify a person's authority to sign a lease as a landlord? Are there some sort of ownership registers open to public inquiries? If an owner is married, does his/her spouse have to sign a lease as well (as co-owner)?
Thank you.
Why are you paying 6 months or rent in advance? You should avoid this if at all possible.
Sorry to say, but I hear a craigslist scam about to happen. You found this rental on CL (or some similar online site) and the private ”owner" agreed to rent you the apartment if you wired six months rent into his bank account, right? Or Western Union?
I am also a private landlord and I would not take advance rent. If I were you I would go rent a hotel room and maybe find a room to rent or maybe some room above a garage.
I personally would not pay rent in advance. You can probably deposit the money in a account to prove you have the cash reserves to rent long term. Maybe do some sort of escrow account and making tha strictly rent payment. Having come from overseas I can understand the difficulty of finding a rental.
You can do a title search to see who is the rightful owner of the property. The only person who can sign a lease is a owner or a agent of the owner with permission to sign leases.
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