Tenants Screening - Hold Out Or Take A Chance?

[Karen Johnson]

I have a house for rent. In the interest of full disclosure I think I may have overshot the monthly rent and was planning to lower my rate this weekend. In the mean time, I’ve actually had a family of four (boyfriend and girlfriend, girlfriend’s mom and her aunt) apply for the home just yesterday. They seem like decent enough people. However, they have poor credit, explained as being the result of job loss. I’m somewhat concerned but can require additional security. Their old landlord is selling his property, but gives them decent ratings as tenants. They were late on payments to him in the early days “but only by a couple of days and that paid the late fees.” They have pets (allowed by me, although if I had two identical applicants I’d choose the ones without pets). They are “outdoor” smokers. I’m (mostly) okay with this. I know some outdoor smokers whose homes smell fine. If they smoke in the house they would be out. One of the tenants has two arrests for misdemeanors, including one for use or possession of drug paraphernalia. This I don’t like at all. And the Mom has early onset dementia. I wouldn’t have known if she didn’t mention it. And while I don’t think it’s grounds for denial, I do worry about future implications as her condition deteriorates. Also the boyfriend is mom’s caregiver and that is the sole source of his income. Between the four of them, they make 3.2x the rent (regular job, disability payments for mom and aunt, caregiver income for the boyfriend). Part of me says this is a lot to take on in tenants, and part of me says that there’s no guarantee a perfectly good, highly qualified tenant doesn’t end up in a life altering situation that makes them a worse bet. So, what do you folks say? I have grounds to deny based on my criteria. The question is if I am making too much out of “life” and should take a chance on these tenants. It’s a nice home in a good neighborhood (A/B). I want to make a sound business decision and not just an “everybody deserves a chance decision”. Would you pass in these tenants or not? And in either case, why?