I'm going with my gut...

[Lisa Ryan]

I'm going with my gut and I know some *concerned* individuals might lecture me :)

As I talked about in a previous post, one of my applicants warned me that he had an eviction on his report but his name wasn't on the lease. I had them over to discuss it and the situation is that his ex-wife wife was a little bit of a con artist and forged his signature - he's fighting it and I saw the legal proceedings that are happening, including her history of forgery. He's been divorced for a few years now and is trying to leave her legacy behind.

He also makes solid income - he makes 3.6 times rent - and has been with his company for a decade. I talked to his current landlord and they're sad to see them go and have tried throwing extra incentives in to make them stay.

So I'm going with my gut. He has an eviction in his name currently from 2010, but all the positives (1) solid income (2) stable job and (3) glowing current landlord reference are telling me yes.  His wife's income is a little lower and I know some people want both the husband and wife to meet the 3x rent rule. She makes 2.4 times rent. They're newlyweds (2 years) so hopefully nothing happens to the marriage, but if something does there's no reason why they shouldn't be able to pay the lease through or an early termination fee penalty of 1.5 month's rent.

Let all the concerned Aunt Suzies step forward...

[Steve Babiak]

Drive by is not the same as an in home visit. The in home visit is more important because that is what your place will soon look like if you choose them as tenants.

When you take the approach you used in the call to the phone number on the application, you have to distort some pieces of the information on the application to see whether the person you are speaking with is told to just go along with questions or whether it is really a landlord you're speaking with. Things like the move in date (change month and year), the rent amount, the security deposit amount, who paid utilities, etc.  When you give a landlord wrong information for all those things, the landlord will tend to correct the distorted items.