Can I run this tenant past you?

[Michelle Calicchio]

First, I apologize in advance for the newbie question. We are working on renting out our first investment home and I have a tenant who is interested in the house. This is my first time through the screening process and I'm I'm hoping someone can take a look at this and see if I'm missing something.

Tenant is married with three children and two St. Bernards. The rental property is large with a large backyard and we said pets were ok. Perspective tenants understand concerns about dogs and have invited us over to their house to see that dogs haven't done any damage.

Both tenant and wife are employed - tenant at same job over 5 years, wife, 2 years - employment has been verified with adequate income for rental.

Credit history and eviction check have been run. No prior eviction history. Bankruptcy filed in 2004. Credit since then is mostly OK except for a few 30 day late payments. Most all accounts have been closed with the exception of a car loan and a credit card.

Because of the two St. Bernards, I'm planning on letting the tenants know that the pet deposit and cleaning deposit will be non refundable. They even stated at the time of application that they would be willing to make these deposits non refundable since they know that they are more of a risk with the credit history and the dogs.

They also stated they are willing to set up direct deposit into our account for the monthly rent.

Tenants are polite, call when they say they will, show up for appointments when they say they will, paid application fee with no hesitation - while I realize this isn't really a screening method - judging from how many no shows, rude people and people who balked at application fees, it is a pleasant surprise to deal with someone well, pleasant.

Am I missing anything obvious in the screening process? Does anything stand out that I need to investigate further?

Again, I appreciate your help. This is our first rental and it's been an amazing learning process.