Dealing with a persistent applicant

[Amit M.]

I am using Zillow to receive applications and screen prospective tenants. I have received some inquiries for viewing and 1 application. The applicant has been very persistent on wanting to check out the property. He says he wants to move to the area because of the schools. He even offered to pay a few months rent in advance. That was definitely a red flag. There are other comparable listings which are still available in very close proximity (same schools). 

Zillow background checks returned clean (no criminal background). The credit score is stellar (750-800). The income (business) is a little tough to project, but, the last couple of years of income has been well above the requirement (3x). However, a search on google returned a lawsuit (small claims court) against one of the landlords in the past. The lawsuit is for having deducted a very big amount from the security deposit for cleaning. This may or may not be a big deal since I have have been in a tenants shoes before and I can understand if the tenant feels (rightly so or not) they have been unreasonably charged for cleaning a house they felt was left in immaculate condition. I do intend to call the landlord to find out more. I suspect this is the reason he is having a tough time finding a rental despite all other checks being good.

I am a little on the fence on this applicant. On one hand he may be a very stable tenant since his options outside are limited. On the other hand I am wondering what do I not know about this applicant. 

I am also questioning the  use of Zillow for screening, it's not clear to me why this lawsuit is not reported in the Zillow background reports. Thinking of switching to mysmartmove.com (SmartCheck Premium plan) for screening. 

[Jim K.]

@Amit M.

I don't know what things are like in San Jose, I don't know what class of apartment you're offering, and everything I say comes from my experience working with tenants in C-class housing in Pittsburgh and the close urban suburbs.

In my opinion, the situation with security-deposit-withholding is totally out of control here among the majority of local landlords. I've seen landlords pretty much put forward any flimsy excuse to hold on to that security deposit. The professional property managers are smart and aggressive about loss prevention, pushing right up to the line with itemized deductions, photos, and depreciation. But the local hobby landlords that abound in this town are sometimes just too inexperienced and stupidly greedy to have any real sense of where the line even is. This even includes LLs that have owned one or two apartments for ten years -- they may only have dealt with maybe four or five move-outs in their time.

First of all, check the lawsuit. Did this guy manage to convince the judge that he had a case? Did he win?

My next step, whatever the results were, would definitely be to call the landlords who got sued and listen to them as sympathetically as possible. Listen to how they present their reasons for holding on to the security deposit. It will take some careful listening, but you'll most likely hear enough to be able to make a good decision.

Then call the tenant and get his side of the story. Compare to how they presented their information, and make your own judgment. A real bonus with a guy like this is that he will understand in clear terms the consequences of screwing up with you. That can be worth a lot of on-time rent.