prospective tenant seemed perfect until the screening application - WWYD

[Anonymous]

I've accepted a tenant who had divorce related credit issues and it was fine. She gave a pretty clear explanation of what had happened. She also did it upfront- before I ran the credit check. And I was not the first landlord, so she had solid rental history.
This seems really different.
I would not accept a questionable tenant when their is a moratorium on evictions.
"due to issues that surfaced in the backround check, I am unable to rent to you.'

Or you could do a substantial prepayment of rent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is nothing perfect about this tenant. I am not sure about the legality of turning him down but if you can do so legally I would.

Op here. He agreed to have his dad co-sign but it’s the same issue of self-reported income for their family owned business and yeah I could get tax returns but honestly I feel like it’s too risky in covid for small business owners to not get bad luck and be unable to pay the rent (and then I’m screwed cuz covid restrictions and cuz it’s be a hassle to evict even in non covid times). So... I just want to say no to this person. I can legally do that, right? “Sorry your credit report and documentation provided to not meet my tenant criteria, even if dad co-signs, it’s not a good match.” Is that acceptable?

Did you run a credit check on the dad that came back with flags? Or is just the issue that it is self-reported income?
Not every small business has COVID related economic issues right now.

[Anonymous]

As a landlord this is why I use a realtor. I don't want to meet the tenant, I don't want to get emotionally invested. If they don't look good on paper I just tell the realtor no and we move to the next application. Worth every penny of the first month's rent. Plus I find much more high quality renters using realtors that people off the street.

No I would not rent to this person. As I've had properties turn over I've been very careful who I rent to. God knows I get some covid squatter. Only people with solid incomr.a, solid jobs and solid credit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is nothing perfect about this tenant. I am not sure about the legality of turning him down but if you can do so legally I would.

Having shitty credit and being financially irresponsible is not a protected class. Its perfectly fine to deny him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you running a halfway house or a business? If you really
like him, but remember he's not your friend, ask for a year of rent upfront or have him kick rocks. Ignore the red flags at your peril.

What kind of idiot would provide a year of rent upfront? Get real.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Yes, ask for a year worth of rent upfront otherwise ignore him.

Yes of course, I'm sure a recent grad in his mid 20s has that sitting around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Same. My parents were required to co-sign my leases for the first 4-5 years I was out of college. I didn't have bad credit, just a smallish income and limited rental history. I think it's common.

It's very uncommon to require new grad adults provide co-signers on rentals. I have never had a co-signer except when I was in college. Maybe that's just because I always picked apartments I could actually afford. I dunno.

[Anonymous]

The absolute best thing you can do is a small landlord is being incredibly picky on underwriting tenants. I would ask for the parents to co-sign. If the young person had a rental history with a prior landlord and had paid on time, then I wouldn't require that---but you have too many red flags and too little track record on renting history.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Yes, ask for a year worth of rent upfront otherwise ignore him.

Yes of course, I'm sure a recent grad in his mid 20s has that sitting around.

It's called Daddy

[Anonymous]

Daddy tells son or daughter to find a landlord that will lease to them without co-signing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you running a halfway house or a business? If you really
like him, but remember he's not your friend, ask for a year of rent upfront or have him kick rocks. Ignore the red flags at your peril.

What kind of idiot would provide a year of rent upfront? Get real.

I recently rented to a tenant who paid me 18 months up front. He is recently laid off. Nobody would rent to him.

I collected 44,400. I've invested that money and the growth is higher than my PITI. I'm hoping to double that by the time his lease is up.

[Anonymous]

I am a landlord and wouldn’t rent to him. Maybe pre Covid with a co-signer. You need to be extra picky

[Anonymous]

My credit report says a bunch of bad things like too many inquiries, too many accounts opened recently, too high balance. ...But the score is 800 and I have never had any late payments, pay in full each month. I think they all just need something bad to say.

That said if you can see the actual report and see that there are delinquent accounts WHILE he's living rent-free with parents, that would be a hard NO from me. If you feel bad and want to be nice, you can refund his application fee but don't need to.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone. Op here. I found the almost perfect tenant yesterday, who checks out on paper. I gotta tell the kid no. Sure I offer to reimburse the $40 application fee? I’m tempted to (in the past I’ve only got applications for people who ended up actually moving in so this has never come up.) on one hand, he should have told in advance of any issues that might come up so he could’ve avoided the application altogether if it was an issue for me; on the other hand, it’s a good faith kind of “sorry for wasting your $40 and time” thing. Wwyd?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone. Op here. I found the almost perfect tenant yesterday, who checks out on paper. I gotta tell the kid no. Sure I offer to reimburse the $40 application fee? I’m tempted to (in the past I’ve only got applications for people who ended up actually moving in so this has never come up.) on one hand, he should have told in advance of any issues that might come up so he could’ve avoided the application altogether if it was an issue for me; on the other hand, it’s a good faith kind of “sorry for wasting your $40 and time” thing. Wwyd?

What? No. I assume you have spent $40 worth of your own time or money on screening the prospective tenant. It is not as though you misled him into thinking he had a shot. This is what the application fee is for, I don’t think a refund is in order.