Applicant Professional References point to difficult personality

[Constantia Petrou]

Hello all,

I have been screening for a quality tenant for my vacant property for a while and a couple who seem to have loved the place and who came out as friendly and respectful during the visit applied. All the financials look good and meet our requirements. The issue is the references. Two independent professional references for the husband gave two statements that both point to a difficult personality: 1) Employer had difficult/ tough conversations (when he didn't get what he wanted) and 2)He doesn't get along with people who have strong opinions and got into  a few heated arguments at work and at the end he apologized. On the one hand I am thinking about contacting the applicant to discuss our concerns and assess his personality from the way he responds, and make a decision after that (since he gave a positive impression during the visit). On the other hand, In the past we accepted a tenant with a negative reference regarding their personality and that decision was to our detriment, so perhaps the best thing to do is deny the applicant and continue looking. Any thoughts from your experience? Thank you