Potential Tenant Question

[Rachel Pivonka]

Help! First time investors here! We are in the process of renting our first property in Knoxville TN. We have a law school student starting her first semester that has filled out an application and we have checked her credit, background, eviction record, landlord reference.  She has provided proof of scholarships and loans covering her living expenses which meet the 3x rule. 

The question is about her fiance. Their plan is as soon as he gets a job here he will move and join her. They came to see the condo together. He completed and paid for the mysmartmove credit/background/eviction check and his score was very strong. But he keeps putting off filling out an application and emailing it back to us. She says he is worried that if we call his employer they will be upset and treat him badly because they do not know he will be leaving. I told her we understand and will not call his employer, especially since we have verified that she will have enough loans/scholarship to pay for rent without any of his income. She says a day later that he is still worried that someone will mistakingly call the employer and he hasn't filled out our app. They thought I worked for a big company and others would be handling his application. I told her that wasn't the case and reassured her, I also told her I could speak to him directly about this if he wanted to discuss it. She said she would talked to him about it again tonight. I asked what line of work he was in and she said engineer. They live together now and their wedding is in 3 months. 

My questions are...

Should I tell him to just leave of the employer totally section blank on application? 

Is it okay if he doesn't fill out an application since I have his background/credit/eviction check? I also have a copy of his ID. Keep in mind she has enough funds to cover rent alone.

Should we be trying to get her fiance to go ahead and sign the lease now even though it may be a couple months before he moves in and contribute to rent? And if not should we add him to the lease when he moves in?

[Dana Dunford]

@Rachel Pivonka - Congrats on starting out with your first property. The 3x rule is for total household income. If the law school student meets that requirement, then technically you don't need income verification from the second person. However, you should still have him fill out an application to confirm:

1. Pets
2. Bank accounts
3. Past landlord history
4. etc.

Tell him to leave the Company name blank but to fill out everything else. (Also, if he's leaving his job, then income verification doesn't make too much since unless you can guarantee that he'll have another job in Knoxville ... which you can't guarantee). If he is unwavering about giving the other information on himself, then I would decline him as a "tenant" until he provides that information. And he can only stay as it relates to the guest policy in your lease agreement. I hope that helps.