Collecting rent from a 'good' prospect

[Lisa G.]

We put our house up for rent, and asked our neighbor (of 8+years) if he would be willing to keep an eye on any renters we find and he agreed. When we had out first open house, he came over to ask if he could recommend his brother as a potential prospect. Keep in mind that we are NOT 'buddy-buddy' with this neighbor, just the general 'hello' cordial type of relationship.

I said, "As long as he can pass the credit and background check, we will keep him in mind" Turns out, the neighbor is his brother's boss, said he was a quiet responsible guy. Had his brother come over and fill out an application and pay the fee.

I run his credit, and it comes back spotless, the screening I used is from the state landlord association, and he gets an 'above average' rating, he also makes 4x the rent. The other person who filled out an application has 2 prior evictions, and large balances of current various wage garnishments.

We chose the neighbor's brother, and he moves in. Now he is over a week late paying the rent, keeps giving us the 'check is in the mail' run around, and most recently asked if we could set up a direct deposit for him,. I set up an account with eRentPayments.com and emailed him the instructions on how to set up payments.

Also, when we went in to check on the toilet, we noticed that there seemed to be extra tenants (a girlfriend or roommate and possible children) not listed on the rental agreement. We cannot be sure that they are living there, but how do we make sure?

Anybody run into issues like this? (first time LL and I already wanna rip my hair out)