Tenant screening help

[Shehryar Iqbal]

Anyone ever use the BP suggested tenant screening website RentPrep? Does it work well?

I’m trying to Screen a tenant Who has about $6000  monthly in income from IHSS ( basically government subsidies for someone who is disabled). The rent is $2500. She says her credit score is not the best at around 600 but did show some proof of income. Any suggestions?  I don’t want to turn as she said she’s trying to get into a better situation for her and her son, and she does have income to afford it, which is nontaxable.

The cash flow on this rental will be very low and I had to invest to fix up the property, after getting screwed over a couple times. At this point I’m just trying to rent it to cover my mortgage and expenses and have a couple hundred dollars in cash flow until I can sell it in a better seller’s market. 

[Carl Millsap]

Shehryar, I recommend you set a criteria for your rental. Check with local companies to see what their criteria is for similar units.

Example: Gross Income must be 3x rent, no evictions within the last year, background and credit checks. We verify the current landlord, and send them a few questions.

Consider worse case scenario. She moves in and can't pay the rent. How long will it take you to evict her, get the place cleaned and ready to rent? 

There are no guarantees with any tenants, you'll learn in this business everyone has a story. I'm all for giving someone a chance, but screen, screen, and screen. Don't let their "story" become the reason you approve them. 

Here's an option. First month rent, deposit, and last month rent. That would give you $5k in escrow (deposit and last month) in case she can't pay rent. Check your local laws to ensure you can collect that much up front, if everything else checks out then I'd consider it, but only after verifying everything.