Too late to back out and go with other applicant?

[Jack B.]

So I had an application from guy A first and application from guy B second. 

Guy A has a much longer rental history and has a spotless record and would likely be a long term tenant as he has lived in the same place for 6 years. He is more easy going.

Guy B is putting deposit down tonight after his references came back good, BG check came back good though one arrest no conviction for a minor crime (DUI). He is a bit more aggressive. 

Both credit scores are equal.

I'd really rather have guy A, but guy B is on his way over because I fat fingered guy A's background check email and it got declined by the wrong person, so I assumed he was out. Turns out he never got the email and that's when I saw that I got his email wrong (which happens to him a lot apparently). But by that time guy B was told to come on by for a holding deposit.

Guy A would be a better tenant IMO but guy B is coming by tonight to put a hold on it. Too late to back out? I could just say I had a previous application and the results just came back in full, and technically to avoid discrimination I should take guy A's application, which is actually true, he applied a day before guy B...

[Natalie Kolodij]

Well- You CAN back now on guy B now. But it'll piss him off. 

This actually happened to me once, in Seattle actually. 

We applied, landlord said as long as background check came back clean monday 100% it was ours. 

Well over the weekend someone without a dog applied. He went with them. 

I sent him a letter noting that this was very unprofessional and we wasted a whole weekend (while ona  crunch to move) because he'd told us we had the home based on one contingency, which we knew we'd meet. 

He responded with a card stating that we were absolutely  correct. He included a $100 bill to apologize and said to get drinks on him. 

So I guess in Summary.....if you haven't signed let tell him you're sorry it won't work. Send him a gift card or something to help settle your cosmic karma. and move on.