Foreign Students

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I just had 2 very nice Chinese students look at a house I have for rent. They want to rent it.

They speak very little English, but have a friend that can translate. They do not have a ss# because they are transfer college students and don't work. They say their parents in China will pay their rent for them. They are fine giving me twice the monthly rent as a security deposit. They offered me 3 x, but in California, 2x is the max I can take.

Here are the problems that I see off the top of my head:

I have no way to check any criminal history or credit w/o a ss#. But, they are young transfer college students, so I doubt there is any problem.

I have no way of checking on the parents in China and no way of enforcing rent from the parents.

I would really appreciate any feedback. Any of you have something similar come up?

[Michaela G.]

In order for them to have gotten a student visa, they would have had to have a sponsor - i.e. the parents guaranteeing their expenses.

They're choosing California, which is an expensive state, so I would think the parents would have some money.

There's a risk to their visa, if they were caught in some kind of felony, so I think the likelyhood of them destroying your property is smaller than with an American, in my opinion.

I also believe that Asian countries see honor and shame as much more important than the way American see it today. So, again, I would think that paying their rent on time is an honorable thing.

Just my opinion