HELP! How find qualified tenants in a rough neighborhood

[Grace Wang]

I recently purchased a 4 plex in a rougher neighborhood. Many people responded to my vacancy units ad on craigslist. 

However I am running into problems that neither they are not qualified, or qualified tenants don't like the neighborhood. 

The criteria I used: 1. no criminal/eviction history. 2 good rental/credit history. 3. Make 3 x of the rent household income ($2500 minimum). 4. able to pay first and last month of rent along with $300 security deposit. 

The ad has been posted over a month now, I  start to wonder what is not working: 

1.  I can lower the rent, but it might attract wrong types of renters.

2. I can lower the income requirement?  

3. I need to look into section 8 tenants? 

Any advice would be very appreciated. Where do I find more information of requirement of section 8? what paper work would be required?

Thank you everyone in advance. 

Grace 

[Darren Budahn]

@Grace Wang

If this is a C- or D area, you are going to need to change your rental criteria quickly or your units may stay vacant.  Since I don't know your area, it's hard for me to give exact advice but I would suggest revising all of your criteria: 

1. You should have some sort of criteria for criminal and eviction history, but if you have a blanket requirement that there is no criminal history, you may not be finding many tenants.  I would be looking to exclude those with recent drug convictions and with recent felonies.

2. I would lower the income requirement to 2.5 times rent amount. 

3. I personally like Sec.8 as you are guaranteed a portion of the rent. 

4. I would totally scratch your criteria that they have good credit.  You will be lucky if they have a bank account, let alone good credit.  If they do have a credit history, it will likely not be good. 

5. Also, I would require them to have first months rent and a full security deposit.  Most of these folks are not going to have enough cash to pay you first months rent, last months rent, and SD. 

I would suggest looking for those who have stable income whether it comes from a job, gov't benefits, etc.  I would also look strongly into rental history and look for someone with a stable history. I would also automatically weed out anyone who you catch lying on their application.  It is not impossible to find a decent tenant in this area, but it is more difficult for sure. 

Also, I would familiarize yourself with HUD's new guidelines when defining your rental criteria. They are somewhat ambiguous. But, having a blanket criteria that you won't rent to anyone who has ever been convicted of any crime from any time will not be legal.

Good luck