Tenant's credit at 524

[Frank Agyeman-Duah]

I listed my rental property on Zillow and received a completed application from a prospective tenant who's credit score is 524. Rent for the property is $1600 per month and per the credit report, tenant has a total debt of $611 and combined monthly income of $3,834  from her pension as a retired nurse. My issue is that the tenant stated she recently did a short sale for a home she's occupied for 35 years but other bills were getting her behind on her mortgage payments. Tenants has no bankruptcies and no criminal record. Need suggestions and recommendations .

[Kyle J.]

@Frank Agyeman-Duah  Selecting tenants is SO much easier if you have an established screening criteria that you can base your decisions off of.  Your criteria should be written down and provided to the applicants so they know what it is too.  That way, (hopefully) they'll self-screen themselves and only the ones who qualify will actually bother applying.  

I'm guessing you haven't done that yet, but I highly recommend you do it for future vacancies.  Whether or not you choose to have a minimum credit score as one of your criteria, you should definitely have a minimum income requirement.  The most common is 3x the monthly rent.  I don't think I've seen anyone set their criteria less than 2.5x the monthly rent.  Either way, this applicant doesn't meet the 2.5x or 3x income criteria.  Her income just simply isn't enough to rent your place (regardless of her credit, which isn't great either).

So I agree with @Julie Hartman, I'd pass on this applicant.