New tenant situation, what would you do?

[Ryan Nichols]

Here is the skinny. A nice couple with a young daughter recently applied for my listing. They passed the background checks, references and income requirements with flying colors, even though they are a single-income family, but neither met my credit score requirements. It appears the wife has just never really established any credit. The husband's credit score appears to have been hurt by student loan debt. The credit report shows he owes nearly $1,000 a month in total for all of his student loans and that several of the loans are in arrears. We discussed it and he told me that he has tried to work out reduced payment plans with the loan servicer but makes too much income to qualify for reduced payments but can't always afford to pay $1,000 a month and support his family, so he just started making lower payments. I sympathized with that situation and feel good about the fact that there are no other negative marks on his credit aside from those associated with the student loans. As such, after driving by the house they are currently renting and confirming it is well kept, I conditionally approved their application pending they would agree to an additional security deposit equivalent to two, as opposed to one, month's rent. They agreed, have set everything up to pay the security deposit and pro-rated rent for November through cozy.co and are planning to move in this weekend. Thereafter, recurring rent payments are scheduled to begin on December 1st.

Today, the wife contacted me and asked if I would be okay with them paying December's rent plus the $50 late fee on December 6th (I assume payday is on the 5th or 6th) because it would make things more manageable for them. However, she said they would make December 1st work if I wasn't comfortable with that.

Given the larger deposit, the upcoming holiday season, and their apparent willingness to do whatever I'm most comfortable with, I'm emotionally inclined to tell them I will waive the late fee just this once under the circumstances but that the lease will be strictly enforced moving forward. However, this will be my first rental and I realize that I could be setting a bad precedent by attempting to be nice here. With that in mind, I'm hoping to hear different viewpoints on how this situation should be handled. So now the question becomes, what would you do in this situation? Thanks for your input in advance.