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Updated about 6 years ago, 09/25/2018
Hypothetical Tennant screening situation
Hey guys!
Long story short, I am preparing to list my first investment property for rent within the next month, and I have come upon a scenario that I cannot confidently find a solution too. Again, this is simply hypothetical and I may never come across this situation, but in the event that I do I would like some input from investors who either know how this should be handled or have experienced this before.
**Hypothetical scenario begins**
The property is listed for rent on multiple platforms, and our advertisements list all of our minimum qualifying standards:
Credit score: 600
Monthly income: 3x the monthly rent
Felonies: None
Previous landlords: Two good references
Property will rent for $1,000
Fortune decides to smile upon me, and within a week I receive two potential tennants who would like to apply to rent the property after having scheduled individual showings of the house. Tennant A is a member of a protected class and Tennant B is a white guy in his 30s; their stats are as follows:
Tennant A; 700 credit score, monthly income of $4,000, no felonies or any other marks on the record, and two positive landlord references.
Tennant B; 650 credit score, monthly income of $3,500, no felonies or any other marks on the record, and two positive landlord references.
Subjective observations of each of the tennants are:
Tennant A; showed up 20 minutes late to our scheduled showing of the property, the vehicle is a pit and obviously not cared for properly, dressed in pajamas, and a review of his social media revealed multiple crude and explicit posts.
Tennant B; Showed up 10 minutes before he was scheduled to view the house, clean car, dressed professionally, and had minimal social media posts all of which were clean and polite.
**Hypothetical Scenario ends**
Obviously Tennant A had the better tangible qualifications, but Tennant B inspired more confidence in the kind of tennant he would be. Do I have a legitimate legal defense if I choose Tennant B over Tennant A because of the "vibes" I got from each of the two if Tennant A decided to sue me for discriminatory tennant selection?
Thanks for the help!