Should I accept these tenants?

[Brett Robison]

Hello.  My wife and I recently purchased our first rental property in a rural Ohio town.  We have remodeled the interior and have just started the rental process.  Our first, and so far only, applicants are a couple with children.  Here are my concerns:

• They are relocating from out of state and do have employment. They have jobs lined up in Ohio but according to them, the jobs want them to be relocated before they start. They claim that they have enough for the first month's rent and deposit. My concern is that typically a job will hold your first check for a week or more so I'm wondering if they will have enough to pay August rent when it is due.
• The other, more pressing concern is one of the applicants has some theft and fraud charges against them in the past. They are at least seven years old. This person also on a work-release program for child-support and walked away, was later charged with escape in 2009.

We are working with a property management team, and they have informed us that they had good references.  One reference was from a previous landlord, but the others were from friends and/or co-workers.  I'm not sure how reliable these references are.

We're just wondering where to go from here.  Ideally, we would prefer to rent to someone with a clean background but know this isn't always possible.  We're also concerned that it may take a while to get our property rented.  Since this is our first rental property, we want to make sure we're not setting ourselves up for failure should we accept them.  If you would not accept these tenants, how would appropriately phrase denying their application?  Should we consider a month to month lease with them?

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[Marc Winter]

If you didn't have concerns you wouldn't pose the question.  Follow your gut.  If you don't have enough applicants, lower your asking price.  Most importantly, write down your application acceptance criteria and STICK TO IT.  

Remember the old real estate saying:  the only thing worse than a vacant unit is a unit with a bad tenant in it.

I'd pass on these guys.