Having already been down this road once, here is what I did differently this time and so far so good. The following things were all done online for free on public websites and I only know how to do them in Riverside county, not sure if the info is available online or in person in other counties.

1. Ran the property for NOD’s (not always effective because how late in the game nods are filed)
2. Looked at the purchase date (2003 and older)
3. Ran the owner in the grantee search for nods/nots on other properties, refi’s and cash out
4. Ran the owner in the criminal and civil court superior court website, checked for small claims, lawsuits, etc.
5. Only rented a place that had been a rental for years, not a “new” rental that the owner was moving out of, huge red flag and what happened the first time.
6. When it came time to fill out the application, I explained the previous rental repo’d for why I was moving and I just asked them if they were in a position to keep the rental for at least a year in the future and made sure the lease did not require that allow showing to buyers during the lease but would allow future renters to inspect the property during my final 30 days and of course landlord inspections that were scheduled (renting a place in the mls sucks).
7. Finally, wehn it was time to pay for the credit check, I asked if I could pay double and run their credit, I’ll show you mine if you show me yours, since we were both taking a blind risk on a stranger, they agreed, but then I didn’t do it because the fact that they would was good enough for me.

Thats the best you can do or all that I could think of. Caveat Emptor