At what point in screening do you ask for pay stubs/bank statmnts

[Lindsey Vargas]

I have 3 applicants I would be happy to choose from and so far just have their application with background/credit check and employment, etc.

Do I accept one applicant and then ask for proof of income, or do I ask all 3 for proof of income and then choose?

[Kyle J.]

@Lindsey Vargas I have the applicants submit a month’s worth of their most recent paycheck stubs along with their application to me. I do this for several reasons. 

First, I (like most landlords) require the applicants to make a certain amount of income to even pass screening (3X the monthly rent). What would be the point in having that as a screening criteria if I wasn’t going to verify it?

Second, I need to confirm they’re still making this amount of money now (not last year or a couple months ago). This is especially important right now with COVID and all the various local, state and federal eviction moratoriums going on. So I want to see that they’re still getting paid this money, and the actual break down on the check stub of how much they get paid per hour, how much of it was overtime, whether they regularly earn overtime, any garnishments or involuntary deductions, year-to-date pay, etc. Point is, there’s so much you can learn from their paystub.

Lastly, I just want to verify they earn what they say they do on their application. On my application I ask how much they make per month, and some (many) people only know how much they make per hour and have a hard time converting it to monthly income so they just guess. And coincidentally, sometimes they just guess whatever 3x the rent is to make sure they qualify (probably hoping I won’t verify it). But I’m going to. You have to make sure they can afford to pay the rent. If you don’t, you’re not doing either one of you a favor.