Looking for advice on potential tenant

[Linda Thomas]

Hello everyone,

i have a 3 bedroom for rent. Single mother with one child is looking to rent the house she has two jobs which would meet the income requirements however she has no rental history and has only been at both jobs for four months with this raise a red flag for you guys or do you think I should give her a chance I'm just concerned about what if she gets sicck, fired, burnt out, fired she also said she gets child support but not thru court the dad gives her cash. . Im looking for thoughts and or suggestions how you would handle this? 

[Scott Lundgren]

This is always going to be a debate, we have all been young and just starting out.  That doesn't determine the risk, credit scores and background checks are all still necessary of course, I wouldn't rent to anybody that doesn't meet the minimum requirements.  So let's assume that she has passed those.  You are going to take a risk on a tenant no matter if they are young or old, single or married.  Just about every question you asked applies to all categories, if you have a couple that both work what if one of them gets sick, fired, ect.  Same results right? So the judgement has to be based on your goals.  Once you have a clear understanding of your focus then this question answers itself.  An investor that is by the numbers will already have an age, income, credit score, range they are ok with.  If the applicant meets them then it's a yes, if not a no.  Zero emotion involved, just follow the criteria and this is solved. An investor that isn't as focused on the numbers will bend the rules and go outside of the range because they want to give someone a chance to rebuild who just got divorced, or was unemployed for a while and just got a good job.  Some of my best tenants were people like this.   But that is because I'm more like the 2nd type of investor in this example.   Having said that I've also had some tenants take advantage of that and I had to evict them.  I look at that risk and feel it's acceptable to me, it may not be to you.  My point is you should evaluate who you are, once you know your goals the debate is over.