Tenant Screening Question: To rent or not rent to this applicant

[Dean Suzuki]

Hi,

I have a tenant that I am screening for a SFR property that I have in Dallas, Tx and wanted to get the input of the community of whether they would rent, or not rent, or have recommendations on things to check further.

I went through Brandon's tenant screening guide and am not sure.

The applicant makes $5300/month.  The rent that I am asking is $1395 (so income is 3x rent, check).   The problem is that the applicant owns a barbershop (since 2010) and the income is not verifiable via a paystub.  The tenant has been living with family for the last year so he doesn't have any landlord references.  He has a clean background (no criminal activity) and no evictions came up on the credit/background search.  His credit score is pretty low (520 or so) and it looks like its because he doesn't have any credit history (no loans, credit cards, etc).   He is willing to offer 2x the security deposit and has about $8K in his bank account. 

It seems high risk, but wanted to see what others think.

Thanks

Dean

[Aly W.]

I don't bother with credit scores. I want to see if there are evictions, eviction filings, or judgments. Obviously I do check for criminal activity and I always verify previous landlords if there are any. I have a young tenant now that has always lived with family, and her husband just got a new job. The primary tenant is a full time student with a stipend and a somewhat guaranteed job when she graduates at year's end. They paid an extra security deposit, and for the 5 months they've been there, so far they've been exemplary. 

As @Debbie Mailloux said, get a copy of his tax return to verify income and ownership of the barbershop. Where did this tenant live before the last year with his parents? 

No tenant is a sure bet, you just do your best to mitigate the risk. Are there any other applicants?