Would you rent to these room mates or not?

Question

It was slow in February and March finding a tenant for another rental, though I ended up with 5 qualified applicants and filled it before I had any vacancy. Now I have another  house vacant for 3 months and almost no qualified applicants, whereas the place has usually gone within a week or two to qualified applicants. People are coming up with 600 credit scores (mostly 550), pitbulls, etc.

I have one application that is comprised of 3 room mates (common). Two are on unemployment (1 of which also gets disability) and the third just started a new job just 1 month ago. Two of the three are service workers (bartender, trade shows). One has really low credit. None have great credit, 2/3 are unemployed but getting UE and 1 is brand new at his job. One has a domestic violence conviction (a female).

I have no other applicants. I'm still hesitant to rent to them due to eviction moratoriums. I've considered a higher security deposit, and would be collecting first/last as usual. But it still makes me uneasy. Under normal circumstances, I would absolutely NOT consider them. But do I risk going into fall with it sitting empty? They do have verified unemployment income and disability income. One has a new job.

I AM getting a flood of interest since dropping the price from 2,200 to $2,000. Much more so than before.

Daniel Haberkost · Answer

"Under normal circumstances, I would absolutely NOT consider them."

I think that line answers your question. The financial risk of this not working out is much more severe than another month or two of vacancy. In my opinion, you'd be taking a bet that's unevenly weighted in the negative direction.

Account Closed · Answer

So at $2000/rent in Washington state should we assume the value of the property is north of $300K? So you want to give control of $300K for an undetermined period of time (no eviction) to a a bunch of unrelated, unemployed service workers one with a criminal record. And you are on the fence about this? Cant imagine why?!

Joe Splitrock · Answer

I know that feeling of desperation when you are having trouble getting qualified applicants, but take my advice and do not settle for bad applicants. In the long run renting to the wrong people costs you way more. They could literally move in and stop paying rent. No jobs? Domestic violence and who cares if it is a woman!

You know that you need to reject them. Price drops is your best move. Be patient. I have been where you are and you eventually you will find a good applicant.

Jonathan R McLaughlin · Answer

@Jack B. You are “hesitant”? This is nothing but trouble you can see coming a mile away. You will Lose a LOT more than it will cost you to keep it vacant.

Jack B. · Answer

Not to mention the stress....and the feeling of injustice in my stomach as a result of them living there for a while while evicting them. I have a good attorney recommendation with a 95% success rate on evictions. And WA has added a loophole for the eviction ban when they extended it: landlords who want to sell or move into the property may evict. Nonetheless, I've not had to do a judicial eviction yet, only serve notice and most bad tenants run...

Jay Hinrichs · Answer

with the eviction moratoriums and other stuff land lords in the NW face i would lower the rent to 1500 and get a great tenant for a year before i took those type of tenants personally.. All these very tough new rules in the NW for landlords is going to really really hurt the lower end renter.. No one is going to take a chance on them.. at least I would not.. although you could see rents going lower for the first time in years.

Jack B. · Answer

None of my rentals are in the city limits, I'm in the suburbs of the greater Seattle area/King County. NO WAY in hell I'd ever buy property in Seattle proper due to the tenant friendly city council idiotic dead beat favor laws. You can't evict people half the year/winter or really screen tenants. You have to take scum criminal tenants. Ridiculous...

Chris B. · Answer

I would lower the rent 10% or even 20% to get more interest and take that loss for 6 months or a year before choosing this application.  Inevitably, sooner and not later, they aren't going to be able to come up with rent as they don't appear to have a good financial track record.

Adam Martin · Answer

Agreed with previous posters.  You are not in a tenant friendly area and when, not if, they don't pay you are going to have your hands full evicting them.  I would rather sit vacant not collecting rent than not collect rent while people are taking advantage of me and I'm paying legal fees.  Is there a chance they could work out, sure but you know it is not likely or you wouldn't have posted.  Follow your process and your gut and you will be fine.  You are getting a lot more interest now, see how that plays out first before doing anything drastic and accepting people you know deep down aren't going to work out.  If you were in a more landlord friendly place where eviction was easier maybe you could mitigate the risk with a higher deposit however unfortunately when you make it harder for a landlord to evict, you make it harder for a marginal tenant to find housing.

Jon Pierre · Answer

If you are hesitant about this decision, you may want to consider selling and getting out of this game. This is a no brainier. The credit scores alone is enough to say no. I won't rent to anyone under 680. When you look at everything else and pretty much all of the above comments and you still have an issue on what to do?? - Good Luck and make the right choice. Don't do it.

Would you rent to these room mates or not?

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