Would you rent to this applicant?

[Yulia J.]

I have an apartment in a good B+ area. There is an applicant who seemed ideal until we ran the background check. Organized and showed up on time, good first impression, credit score in the high 700s with no missed payments on credit cards and student loans, has a very good job - verified, income more than 3X the rent  - verified using pay stubs, previous landlord of the property where the applicant lived before gave an excellent reference. But there are 4 criminal records, 3 of them are for speeding 6-19 years ago, and one is a misdemeanor 10 years ago  - I googled the misdemeanor type and it is "failing to pay for property, labor, or services obtained or used" like failing to return rented stuff or something, and sentenced to community service for that. I plan to ask him to explain what happened 10 years ago. Nothing was mentioned on the application, but we only have questions about being sued, evicted, convicted of a crime, so a misdemeanor wouldn't fit those. Would you rent to him and why?

[Alice Huang]

Curious to see what age group this applicant is in now?  If the applicant is 30, and perhaps did some dumb things in his early 20's, I'd let that go as perhaps he is a different person now.  But if the applicant is 50, and was still irresponsible in his 40's, perhaps that's a bit different.