Deciding on a tenant...

[Robert Drach]

So I am pretty sure I know what the answer here is going to be, but here is my first dilemma as a new landlord. Took a few applications the other day. Two qualified groups of tenants.  Both groups of 4 young adult roommates for a 4 bedroom house.

Both groups have comparable, good credit scores and clean background checks.

Group A live in town and have various low paying jobs, but between the 4 of them have a >4:1 income/rent ratio.

Group B are similar, but make considerably more, for a 7:1 ratio.

The catch: they are moving here from a smaller town nearby, and only one is keeping their job.  The other three have service jobs and will need to find new employment.  One has a side gig lined up for minimal pay, one swears he could get a restaurant job from a friend if  nothing else works out.  I feel like I'm rolling the dice with this group, but their job/landlord references all have the most positive, glowing reviews of them all, "responsible," "hard working," etc. They all have some savings to last a few months, and their average credit score is a hair higher than group A (by less than 10 points)

Thoughts?

[John Warren]

If credit, criminal, eviction issues are not there with group A I probably lean towards taking them. You don't want to underwrite the Group B folks based on jobs they don't have. 

With that being said, use your instincts. I still remember moving back to my home town after getting married. I was filling out the application for a small $700 per month apartment and I was denied because I had a part time job making $600 per month and that was it. Obviously, I had no income, but my wife and I had masters degrees and 20k in the bank. The idiot land lord in a C class market could have had two tenants with 800 fico scores, but she didn't even ask for a co signer...

If Group B just seems like a better group, try to quantify why.