What are the things I need to look out for renting to two families in one unit?

[Christina Banker]

Hi All,

Four prospective tenants showed up today, two males and two females. They claimed the males were step-brothers (which I highly doubted, they sounded unsure on the phone about their relationship). I think they might be just friends. One of the "step-brothers" has a wife, and the other has a girlfriend. They are looking to move to this four-bedroom unit together because they want to save money to buy houses. 

In this situation, what do I need to look out for? Most of the time,  the whole family rents the unit together. In this case, it seems that there are two families. Their income combined is pretty high. Credit score fluctuates among the 4 of them. The avg score is 620. I will make sure they all sign the lease. How do you usually handle when the credit scores fluctuate among them? 

This property is in a good high-end neighborhood. We prefer high-income, high-credit-score people to move in. Please let me know your experience and thoughts?

Thank you

Christina

[Nathan Grabau]

The other thing I would make sure you do is include a clause that each of the 4 of them must sign the lease and each is fully responsible for the entire lease, so if one of them breaks up or one couple leaves, you do not have people saying they are not going to pay you the full rent because they are down a person.