First time screening tenants - how bad can their credit be?

[Denise B.]

Hi,
I'm relatively new to the landlording business. Bought my 1st two units about 18 months ago and inherited tenants that are actually pretty good.

This is my first time screening tenants to fill a vacancy (3 br/1.5 bath $1250 rent) and I thought I had 2 promising applications. They both have income that exceeds the 3x rent requirement but their credit is horrible. The 1st family has multiple judgments from landlords so I crossed them off.

The 2nd family has no landlord judgments and current car payments but lots of accounts in collection (mostly student loans) even though they have a combined income of over $120K. Is this the kind of credit I can expect from most of the applicant pool?

What kind of accounts do you ignore from the credit reports?