Tenant screening, do you consider debt to income?

[Tyler Bobo]

If you want to see the monthly income of 3x the rental amount (or whatever your standards happen to be) do you ask what they owe and have monthly payments on?  Obviously if their income is already "spoken for" and they're stretched too thin they'll likely run into trouble.  I haven't previously considered this much, yet I've been burned before.  How do you handle high Debt to Income?

[Kenny Dahill]

Hi @Tyler Bobo, I agree with @John Underwood that it is more of a whole picture approach.

I also think it depends on the asset class you are dealing with. Lower income are more likely to have less income and probably debt, which will hurt their DTI.

My properties are lower-middle class and I typically rent to young professionals in their 20's to mid-30's. They might have car payments or student loans that hurt their DTI. For them, I typically look at income, job type and then review their bank statements for anything that would be concerning.