MIL apartment prospects are the biggest joke

MIL apartment prospects are the biggest joke

Rental Property Investor · Seattle, WA · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes

I own A - C class properties and have never had these kinds of imbeciles even in my C class property. I get one low life after another with evictions, criminal histories, low income but thinks they can afford it (75% of income on rent), they are going to pay the landlord who evicted them from their first apartment three years ago back even though I have had all this time to do it and still haven't, he evicted them after their first month it wasn't their fault, I'm innocent, blah bla blah. 

Just now I had to ask a lady who is a waitress three times what her income is. She never said, she just keeps saying she works at a restaurant but can afford it, though she had to move out of her last apartment, blah blah blah.

I'm seriously at a point where I'm just going to start being rude to people. If they are this dumb and uncooperative, Maybe I should even note income and credit requirements in the advertisement. I typically don't because I don't want anyone to have any fodder as to the requirements that they can later claim some form of discrimination against.

Ugh. Sometimes I want to tell these clowns that my butt makes 200K a year and they make 12K a year. I own over a million in real estate and they are living check to check renting. *I* am in charge here, not you. You don't get to tell me you qualify or that you make enough. Argghh!!

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JD MartinBusiness Member
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Rock Star Extraordinaire · Northeast, TN · Member since 2015 · 10k+ posts · 16k+ votes
10y

I always list basic requirements - why not? I don't want to waste my time or theirs. 3X rent, clean criminal, eviction and credit report. I don't rent to anyone who fails these standards - felons, evictees, not enough income, and a credit score under 600 is probably a deal-breaker as well. I have nothing against these people, it's just not a demographic I'm going to serve. None of them are protected classes last time I checked. If I had more time to deal with people, I might feel differently, but I work a full-time "day" job and two part-time jobs besides running all my rentals, and I don't have time for ******** :)

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  • Residential Real Estate Broker · San Antonio, TX · Member since 2016 · 506 posts · 311 votes
    10y

    My tongue is heavily scarred from biting it..

    Say what you like between friends, but always by the book in business.

    Its why we have the criteria for qualification printed out: so they can see what we need, what they need, and what will get them disqualified.

  • Real Estate Investor · Audubon, PA · Member since 2009 · 13k+ posts · 8k+ votes
    10y

    We have a long thread on this sort of tenant applicant behavior:

    https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/737...

  • JD MartinBusiness Member
    Moderator
    Rock Star Extraordinaire · Northeast, TN · Member since 2015 · 10k+ posts · 16k+ votes
    10y

    I always list basic requirements - why not? I don't want to waste my time or theirs. 3X rent, clean criminal, eviction and credit report. I don't rent to anyone who fails these standards - felons, evictees, not enough income, and a credit score under 600 is probably a deal-breaker as well. I have nothing against these people, it's just not a demographic I'm going to serve. None of them are protected classes last time I checked. If I had more time to deal with people, I might feel differently, but I work a full-time "day" job and two part-time jobs besides running all my rentals, and I don't have time for ******** :)

    Skyline Properties
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  • Rental Property Investor · Lynnwood, WA · Member since 2015 · 45 posts · 21 votes
    10y
    Jack B. I own a couple of properties in the greater Seattle area too, including an MIL in a class B+ neighborhood... I absolutely do not accept any evictions, and the renter has to make 3x the rent for me to be comfortable... It's your property, take charge politely!
  • Investor · PO, WA · Member since 2015 · 197 posts · 95 votes
    10y

    sorry but what does MIL mean?

  • Rental Property Investor · Seattle, WA · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    10y
    Originally posted by @JD Martin:

    I always list basic requirements - why not? I don't want to waste my time or theirs. 3X rent, clean criminal, eviction and credit report. I don't rent to anyone who fails these standards - felons, evictees, not enough income, and a credit score under 600 is probably a deal-breaker as well. I have nothing against these people, it's just not a demographic I'm going to serve. None of them are protected classes last time I checked. If I had more time to deal with people, I might feel differently, but I work a full-time "day" job and two part-time jobs besides running all my rentals, and I don't have time for ******** :)

    Yeah, I updated my ad with the basic requirements. This is a 750K neighborhood. Some of these people who contact me are literally dumb. They have the worst attention span and reading comprehension, and they don't want to reveal their income, only citing that I should trust them, they can afford it...after they just told me they got evicted from their last apartment in December because they couldn't afford it on their Denny's waitress wage.

  • Rental Property Investor · Closter, NJ · Member since 2015 · 884 posts · 722 votes
    10y

    @Jack B. I feel your pain.  I get my share of deadbeats.  In fact, I just filed on one after she was only living in the apartment for approximately five months.  She vacated the apartment rather than be hauled into court (hooray!).  However the ones who came looking to rent the same apartment were, for the most part, no better than the previous tenant who had skipped out.  When I turned a few of them down, they got downright nasty with me!

  • Investor · Milwaukee, WI · Member since 2014 · 811 posts · 420 votes
    10y
    I'm not sure why you wouldn't list your rental criteria in your initial ads to avoid having unqualified people apply. You also might want to hide your true opinions from your tenants. If you consider people who are looking to live in one of these C class areas to be "low lifes" maybe you should stick with A class areas so you can only rent to non low life's who make at least $200,000 like you do.
  • Rental Property Investor · Seattle, WA · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    10y
    Originally posted by @Darren Budahn:

    I'm not sure why you wouldn't list your rental criteria in your initial ads to avoid having unqualified people apply.

    You also might want to hide your true opinions from your tenants. If you consider people who are looking to live in one of these C class areas to be "low lifes" maybe you should stick with A class areas so you can only rent to non low life's who make at least $200,000 like you do.

    I never said that people in C class areas are low lives. That's your interpretation of what I actually wrote. Again, I have one rental in a C area and no problems like this. The unit in question is in an A area, 3/4 million dollar homes.

    Also, to answer your other question, as I noted in my other post, I don't put criteria in there because it's tipping my hand. I don't like telling people what the criteria are, because I don't want to give them potential evidence to try to use against me for some bogus discrimination suit that I still would have to pay to defend against.  

    My point was for some reason the people who are interested in renting a MIL or probably even a room are proving to be the absolute bottom rung of renters I've dealt with in any range of property classes I have. Almost every person who contacts me makes 12K a year, has a serious felony record, or evictions or some combination of the above. Then they have poor reading comprehension and want to hide their income from me, forcefully telling me they qualify, when in the sentence before that, they told me they got evicted a month ago because they couldn't afford their apartment on their minimum wage pay.

  • JD MartinBusiness Member
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    Rock Star Extraordinaire · Northeast, TN · Member since 2015 · 10k+ posts · 16k+ votes
    10y
    Originally posted by @Mike R.:

    sorry but what does MIL mean?

     Mother in law. I take it to mean alley/garage apartments in nicer areas that were set up often for domestic help, kids, or mother in laws. 

    Skyline Properties
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