LANDLORDS! Prepare to make Subjective decisions in renting.

[Jerry Lucker]

By now we all know to use only Objective criteria in qualifying prospective tenants. THAT may all change believe it or not.

I recently attended the winter conference of the Washington Landlord Association. One of the featured speakers was an attorney for a government agency.

There's a notion afoot that because our society now has built-in racial bias that we can no longer disqualify rental prospects based on blanket qualifications.

EXAMPLE.  An across the board 'yes' answer to a question such as 'Have you ever been convicted of a felony?' cannot automatically be used to turn down a minority applicant.

Seems like we now need to dig a little deeper - 'How long ago was the felony?' 'Was it for a violent offense?' 'Did you get counseling?' etc  etc. The bottom line is we may have to end up making subjective decisions. Ya sure you betcha. Easy to see where that will end up. 

The government is again opening a can of worms for us to feed off. Its a good thing one of my exit strategies is to turn rentals into another type of investment.

Jerry Lucker