advance rent payment

[Erod R.]

hi everyone,

I am the owner of a small commercial building.  it has two store fronts on the ground floor and residential apartments on second and third floor.  i am currently renting one of the store and found a potential tenant.  the potential tenant was honest and told that his credit is bad because of student loans he was not able to pay. however, his wife is a director of a company that deal with children and has better credit.  they both wants to setup a daycare since she has the knowledge.  the husband mentioned that because of his low credit he can compensate by paying six month in advance plus last month and security deposit.  he said he has money to pay in advance and he got the money from some lawsuit he won.  

 if i decide to go ahead and rent to him and wife , im planning to   ask him to do the following:

- fill out rental application

- $30 fee for background criminal records

- proof of insurance for the business

- proof of wife license that permits her to work with children

- proof of income from job to ensure they can pay rent even if business not  making money

i read in the internet to watch out for those people who wants to pay in advance because they wont pay eventually.  not sure how true this is because when i was in college i was paying in advance(3 months at a time) and always pay my rent after advance payments expired.

what do you guys think?  have anybody experience  something like this? do you think this could be a potential bad tenant? etc etc

let me know whats your opinion on this

[Thomas S.]

I would stay away from them regardless. But that is just me, I only accept tenants that I believe in. In this case I would have zero confidence, zero trust.

It comes down to your own personal risk tolerance.  If I were to accept them I would not take any advance payment and would put them on a initial M2M lease. Chances are they will say no since they would be taking the risk instead of you..