Need advice on accept or decline tenant

[Leon Li]

I need some advice on whether to accept or decline tenant. Out of state rental has been listed for little bit over 1month by renterwarehouse. So far gotten 4 applications all single mother with 2, 3, 4 kids. Most of them meets income qualification but all of them had terrible credit, collections. I'm not sure what to do at this point, really desperate to rent it out, but also afraid of bad tenant. None of them had any evictions. One of the applicants is nursing assistant with 6800 a month income, rent is 1300. Has anyone had good tenant experience with terrible credit and 9 collection records. Thanks.

[Thomas S.]

Take the best one and put them on a M2M lease. If they are sincere and willing to step up they will have no issues being on M2M from day one. If they know they are likely to not make rent payments on time they will not agree to a M2M lease.

Chances are that if you accept a tenant with bad credit they will be making excuses and not paying rent on time.

Make sure you make it crystal clear that the first time they are even one day late you will be non renewing their lease.

If you cave and allow them to stay after a late payment don't come back here asking for advice on how to deal with a tenant that consistently pays late.