Am I being unreasonable regarding up front deposit?

[Ben Anderson]

I have a tenant (great income, excellent credit) that signed a lease beginning June 2020. Am I being unreasonable to ask for first, last, and deposit now (Nov 19')?

[JD Martin]

Originally posted by @Ben Anderson:

Thanks @JD Martin we are building a house that we plan to move into by April 2020. We listed our current house on Zillow with a notification that the house would not be available until June 2020. Honestly we did not expect such a strong response. We were inundated with applicants. Maybe I underpriced it. After mortgage, taxes, interest, insurance, 10% maintenance, 1 month assumed vacancy and $233 / month HOA we are still netting approximately $300. If I am missing something please let me know. As an aside I have a contingency in place in the event our new construction is not ready by then. Perhaps I was too eager and did this too early.

I would say you listed too early. 9 months from now we might be in a recession, who knows? Or the market might explode and you're $1k under market. You might also find your new home drags on and you're not ready to move. I've built a new home and I have had tenants build homes. Things happen and timelines change. 

If you go forward you want to collect a non-refundable "holding" fee for the property at least equal to a month's worth of rent, that can convert to a deposit upon tenancy, and collect the rest of your fees when you are a month or so out such that if the original tenant bails you have time to put it up for rent to someone else. Make sure this is all clear in the signed lease.