This AI Tool Is Changing How Landlords Spot Fake Renters — Here’s How It Works

In an interview with Fox Business, Greystar Real Estate Partners, the largest apartment manager in the United States, said that it has recently seen a surge in fraudulent rental applications across the country. The situation has worsened both for renters and landlords, as landlords are less sure about which renter applications to trust, and as a result, renters have a more difficult time successfully applying for properties. Furthermore, AI has often played a role in this breakdown of trust, as AI-generated documents have often been used to deceive landlords.

Entrepreneurs Tim Ray, Craig Schoen, and Chad Guziewicz had this dilemma in mind when they founded the tech company VeriFast. They quickly realized that AI didn’t have to be the source of renters and landlords’ problems; it could be the solution to fake rental applications and other roadblocks to successful verification. As the first “Verification-as-a-Service” software platform, VeriFast employs agentic AI for tasks such as answering client questions and handling lease signatures. Far from being just a chatbot, VeriFast’s agentic AI algorithms can handle the entire leasing process from start to finish.

This is possible through VeriFast’s integrated software platform that analyzes data such as financial data, as well as a renter’s personal information, including employment history. VeriFast also analyzes users’ personal documents, such as passports, driver’s licenses, and government-issued ID cards, using biometrics. These features ensure quick and accurate identification and verification, making the verification process more seamless and efficient. Instead of relying on renters’ credit scores and self-uploaded PDFs, which can be easily edited to appear legitimate, VeriFast leverages technology to look at the totality of a person’s credit and rental history, restoring the trust between renters and landlords.

VeriFast has been able to integrate all of these features through the proprietary technology it inherited from Opsansa, a fintech company that specialized in automated property management support. Opsansa was a company with a noteworthy history, known for its multi-agent systems used by real estate professionals and companies. After acquiring Opsansa, VeriFast went from just checking files and clients’ documents to running the entire process using AI. Since this upgrade, VeriFast went on to win the IMN SFR Award for AI Application of the Year in 2025.

The aforementioned Greystar Real Estate Partners had an opportunity to see VeriFast in action, as it has integrated the AI-based platform into its verification processes. Over the course of one case study, Greystar employed VeriFast’s services for over 100,000 of the units it managed, reporting a significant reduction in fraudulent applications, faster leasing cycles and more confident decision-making, a lower operational burden on on-site teams, and improved portfolio-wide consistency in applicant evaluation.

Another major real estate company using VeriFast, TruAmerica Multifamily, also reported a significant decrease in rent delinquency rates from year-to-year, along with an increased ability to detect fraudulent applications. As a result, the company has prevented millions of dollars in eviction costs and has also experienced a more efficient verification process, increasing renter approval rates and increasing the quality of applications landlords have received.

In truth, the development of VeriFast can be seen as part of the turning point experienced by the rental housing industry as it faces more sophisticated fraudulent applications. While the adoption of technological means of verifying applications is not a panacea to the problems being faced in the market today, the approach is still a significant improvement in the way risks are currently being assessed.

It is important to note, however, that technological advancements also pose certain challenges in terms of decision-making. The use of technological tools such as VeriFast makes the process less dependent on the manual reviews of the past and more focused on interpreting the data provided. While the tool offers the landlord a level of certainty when it comes to decision-making, it may also make the application process quicker for prospective tenants.

Overall, while such technologies might not solve all problems in the industry, they are bound to change the standards of application and tenant verification moving forward. Ultimately, the future of such tools will depend heavily on their successful integration into existing processes. In the meantime, companies like VeriFast will continue looking for solutions using modern technology and a practical approach to the necessities of renting properties in America.