Accept a Tenant with a criminal past?

[Vincent Plant]

I have my place listed and I had a guy apply who told me upfront when we met that he has a past, he is on the right path now and trying to rebuild his life.

Very polite, has excellent credit (somehow), very responsive, has submitted landlord references and paystubs to prove his income which shows he has the funds to afford the property.

When I dug in a little further about his “past” I found he was arrested about 12 years ago for raping a drunk woman with a knife, and then trying to hire a hit man to kill her when she went to the police. He was only 19 at the time.

He was in jail for the last 12 years or so and is now on parole. Another thing is Zillow didn’t find any of this on their application background check. That’s another story.

What would you do? Should I look at his attempt to clean up his life as a benefit. Maybe he will be a low laying tenant who works hard to keep his place and stay away from prison. Or do I run for the hills?