@jrj76 wrote:
Guys I am just getting into the apartment video shopping game. I worry about this as I plan to do quite a few local and traveling if I possibly can. This does not seem possible to give an alias when you have to give an ID with you address. This would make burner emails and phone numbers useless as well. Can I get any hints with this or if this is something I should not really worry about.
There is an easy solution to this if you are a woman or Asian. A woman can always give a different last name and say she divorced since the ID was issued. An Asian immigrating to USA usually adopts an American first name to go by, but still retains their birth name on their ID.
If you are an American male, then it gets really difficult, especially if you have a name like mine that can have no possible variation to use as a nickname. I have used my name, my middle name, and a variation of my middle name. Eventually I had to make up generic nicknames like, Buzz, Buddy, Bud, Rusty, Skip, and that gets next to impossible after enough apartment shops. I have also googled "male nicknames" to help. Some are riduculous, but some are helpful suggestions.
However, a fake name only helps during the pre-visit phone call. It does no good when you make the in-person visit and give the agent your ID. If asked at that time, then you give a reason why you go by a different name. Most helpful is that about 5% of the agents fail to ask for your ID, and another 45% just immediately put it in the drawer without looking at it.