Renting to Students w/ Cosigners

[Christopher Andrews]

So I've got some interest in my first rental. Its a nice, completely remodeled gut job that I'm really proud of. Its in a b- neighborhood that I'm asking close to top dollar for, but with rent comps to support, centrally located and convenient to our local University. Three upcoming seniors are wanting to rent it. Ive met them and two sets of parents. I had a good feeling about this, until I got their applications and ran background and credit checks on all the students and each of the 3 cosigning parents (one from each kid). My lease isn't yet setup for this yet, but I've run it once already through my lawyer, and will again to be sure it adequately protects me in this circumstance. All the students and 2 of the parents check out. 1 of the parents has a ch7 on her credit record thats 6 yrs old, and seems to have 5 or 6 maxed out credit cards totalling about 40% of her annual income. What should I do. I've had several young families lose interest once they learn of the school districts, and im asking kind of a lot when it comes to rent, but barely hitting my 12% CoC return. I actually am excited to rent to students, because I think after this year I'm gonna up the rent to a room to room situation and could get a better return. Any advice out there. I kinda feel if this parent decides to stop paying her sons rent, as they will all be signing one lease this go around, and not 3 separate, that if I have to evict, I've got 5 other folks I can go after if I need to, but that's a last resort I am hoping to avoid. Thoughts?