Applicant A vs. Applicant B

[Jennifer Wilson]

Hello everyone!

My husband and I are looking to rent our house and will be managing it on our own. We have multiple rentals, but have always had a management company, so I am somewhat familiar with the process, but also still learning!   We currently have two applicants on the house, both of which have positives and negatives on their credit reports, so I am hoping I can get some input from more experienced property managers/landlords.

Tenant applicant A (husband and wife):

- Both credit scores meet our minimum requirements

- Income meets our minimum requirements and then some

- Only a couple debt items (auto payment, credit cards, etc). Per the credit report, each have used up less than 50% of their credit.

- One of the applicants has had multiple debts sent to collections.  All were under $1000 each, but the majority have been within the last year.  I still have yet to get a hold of his previous property managers to inquire about rent payment history.

Tenant applicant B (husband and wife):

- Both credit scores are slightly under our requirements

- Income greatly exceeds our requirements (18x the amount!)

- Per their credit report, both have used up 90+% of their credit.  It does appear that some of that is due to other mortgages (which we can all understand!), but there is also tens of thousands of dollars in credit card bills.

- Neither of them have had any delinquencies on payments.

What I'm going back and forth on, is the delinquencies of tenant A vs. the amount of payments tenant B has to make each month.  Is how much each has used up of their credit a factor you generally look at?  I appreciate any and all input that can help us out!

Thank you!

Jen Wilson