Tenant Screening Basic Question

[Jarrett Atkinson]

Hello Everyone,

I have officially purchased my first investment property, a duplex in southeast Michigan. I have one unit occupied and the search for the second unit tenant has started a little rocky. Its been over 2 weeks and I have yet to find any clear cut "great" potential tenants (on paper).

I would describe the area as a "B" neighborhood. $1200 is what I'm listing rent for. I am getting a good amount of attention/applications, but the tenant pool hasnt been what I expected. Going in, I wanted monthly income to be 3x the rent and a 600+ credit score.

Ive had all sorts of applicants. Good credit with minimal income, good income with minimal credit, minimal credit and minimal income, and my personal pick for most unique; good income with prior evictions but an offer to pay over asking rent with 2 months security deposit and first months rent up front.

My specific question: At what point do I start to change my criteria on tenants just to get somebody in the unit?

I also would be very interested as to how I could possibly be burned on a tenant with prior evictions that will offer more cash up front. From my reading of posts, evictions objectively suck, but with a 2 month security deposit and a month to month lease, am I being naive to assume I cant get burned?

A little more context: I dont have any immediate cash flow issues and with 1 occupied unit, im only losing a few hundred a month cash with one unit vacant. I want to do this right and If im holding out for a tenant that doesnt exist, the sooner I realize this mistake the better.