I was meeting with a potential tenant at a shopping center.  He was a professional body builder and wanted to open up a fitness gym.  He had called me after seeing a leasing advertisement sign on the property.  I had sent him the leasing brochure and we had talked about the general lease terms before we met to tour the space.

Tenant:  I like this location and the layout is almost perfect for my gym plans.  I think I’ll take it.

Me:  I’m so glad you like it!  To get things started you’ll need to complete this application form.  Once it’s approved then we’ll move on to the lease agreement.

Tenant:  Right, right.  Okay.  Sure.  Let me take a look at this.

Hold up! You want my social security number?  You want my address?  My driver’s license number?  What is this?

Me:  Yes, that’s needed to obtain a credit report.  It’s all explained right here at the top of the application with the legal disclosure information.

Tenant:  This doesn’t seem right.  Why would you need this?

Me:  Well…in order to agree to lease the space to you, the landlord needs to know if you’re a good credit risk.  The credit report helps them with that.

Tenant:  Are you going to give me your social security number so I can check on you?

Me:  No, I’m not.  You’re asking the landlord to give you possession of this space with the understanding that you’ll pay them rent each month for it.  If you don’t pay that rent then the landlord loses money.  You’re asking them to trust that you’ll pay. The credit application helps the landlord to know that you have the ability to pay the rent and that you have a good track record for honoring your financial obligations.

Tenant:  I don’t know about this.  This doesn’t seem quite right.  Like a con.

Me:  A con?

Tenant:  Yeah, like you might be doing this to get my personal information?

Me:  Hmmm… that’s interesting.  So you’re thinking I got my real estate license and then went to work for this management company so that I could get the contract for this shopping center so I could put up advertisement signs as part of an elaborate ruse to get you to call me so I could steal your social security number? Really?

But it’s okay.  You don’t have to give me the application if you’re uncomfortable with anything.  You can just send it to the office when you’re ready.  The contact information is right there at the top.

Tenant:   This is all too shifty.  I’m not doing this.

Me:  Okay then.  I understand.  You need to feel comfortable about your decision.  Good luck with finding your new gym location.  I hope it works out for you.

Tenant:  What do you mean?  I want this place!

Me:  But if you won’t fill out the application then we can’t move forward.  I can’t help you.

Tenant:  What?  You won’t rent this space to me if I don’t fill out this application stuff?

Me:  Yes!  We need the application.

Tenant:  No.  This is feeling all wrong.   I’m leaving.

Later he called my office to talk to “the person in charge”.  That was me as it was my regional office.  When we spoke on the phone he said “that woman” who met with him was very shifty and he didn’t want to deal with her anymore.  I told him a couple of times that I was the one he met on site but he insisted it was someone else.

In the end he finally turned in his application and opened up his gym.  Whenever we met later he was always very friendly and we got along just fine.  He never seemed to recall that I was the same shifty broad who tried to con him at that first meeting.