Multiple Tenants and Multiple Cosigners - Help with Screening

[Benion Horton]

OK, I have a 4 bedroom property near a university campus. Most of the interest has been from students. I have a group of students who will be Juniors, potentially wanting to stay until graduation (24 months). I have met them all when giving the tour, and they seem like a good group of kids. We have had good communication since the tour in trying to work out the details of the application process.

None of them meet the income requirements, and although they all have part time jobs, they are not making 3 times their portion of the monthly rent. The do receive student loans, some of which can be used for housing. We decided to have a parent apply as cosigner for each, in order to allow them to qualify. One parent has an excellent background check and credit score, allowing me to approve that application. The parents of two of the other applicants have poor credit and appear to have some accounts that went into default. I am seeking additional clarification on this as I write this.

I am trying to figure out what my next step is in this situation. The lease is going to be set up as a shared agreement so if any one tenant does not pay it is the responsibility of all the tenants to make the rent payment. So if two parents have excellent credit and enough income to qualify the entire rental, should I move forward? Are there other alternatives to making this work that I am not seeing?

Thanks for your insight.