Renting to applicant with bad credit due to foreclosure

[Brian Hoffman]

Hi,

I am trying to rent a 1/1 and had an applicant that was proactive, friendly, and seemingly perfect with the exception of credit. She has a 477. Discussing it with her, it seems that her late husband racked up quiet a pile of debt that resulted in her eventually filing for bankruptcy. The report shows that she has been current on all bills for the past 2 years, but has a long string of closed accounts for collections, and she says that these are tied to the bankruptcy that took place 9 yrs ago. if the bankruptsy happened 9 yrs ago I'm not sure why the closed account are still showing for the past couple years as 'major derogatory assigned to collections'.

She has provided a list of references (previous landlords, neighbors and housemates), and otherwise seems ideal. She is a self-employed divorce lawyer if that makes any difference and the rent is $2k/mo (furnished with utilities). She has offered to pay 2x deposit to ease the concern.

Renting to an attorney also seems like it could go either way. On the one hand she knows the expectations and there shouldn't be any surprises. On the other hand she likely knows how to exploit tenant-friendly laws to her advantage.

Do you guys have any experience renting to non-cookie cutter tenants? I assume past foreclosure/bankruptsy must be a more and more common thing in recent years after the bubble popped. 

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks