Unusual response to my listing

[Travis Daudelin]

Hey all! Just last night I took the plunge and posted my very first rental listing. I've spent weeks reading and preparing for the tenant screening process ahead and right off the bat the first response I get is as follows:

Good morning. We are home health care agency, and we want to rent the house to care for disabled or elderly clients that are unable to care for themselves 4 -6 unrelated people. We are looking for 3 year lease if that is acceptable with you.

I am immediately getting a suspicious vibe from this. Assuming this is a legitimate agency, would I be essentially renting to them and they would then place the actual tenants? How do I maintain control over my property if I would be working with an intermediary like this? Is this a scam? I'm also not sure my zoning allows for more than 3 unrelated tenants in a dwelling.

Everything I did to prepare for my new role as a landlord assumed that my applicants would be a traditional family or roommate situation. I feel like I need to tread very lightly here so as not to appear discriminatory against applicants with disabilities.

Has anyone fielded listing inquiries like this before?

[Colleen F.]

Ask them thier name and see if it pans out. There are a number of agencies that provide this kind of housing. Dept of developmental disabilites finances housing to care for persons disabled prior to 21. A number of agencies run the homes. I have visited alot of these and they are well maintained and run. They are staffed most of the time as the residents cannot live alone. I dont know if any of them were leased homes.