Background and Credit Search

[Joesiann Cortez]

Hello, I am in NY (Tenant Friendly Territory). My duplex is in upstate Albany area which is a lower income area. I have a lot of applicants that come to me with programs, which I welcome. However, the big problem here has been credit scores. Most of my applicants have a score under 600, which is a huge concern. How do landlords manage co-signers/guarantors? 

[Paul De Luca]

@Joesiann Cortez

You have apply your screening criteria uniformly to make sure you're complying with laws and you'd be within your right to reject them if one of their credit scores is below the minimum. Are you saying in this case they're asking if they could use a co-signer to compensate for the one person's bad credit?

If you only recently listed the unit on the market, I would reject their application. If your days on market gets up there (3-4 weeks), I would maybe consider allowing a co-signer. But I would do my best to avoid that by making sure the rent is competitive.