Tenant/ Applicant Selection

[Elena Casey]

Good Evening BP family!  We are going through our first tenant selection process and are struggling a little bit.  We get to pick from three final applicants.  

The first is an older semi-retired couple with good income and are looking to bridge the gap between moving back into the area and buying a house.  Estimated tenancy 1 maybe 2yrs.  She has no credit history built, at almost 50yrs old.  she states that it is because everything was done through her husband who was in the military.  He has good credit and stable work. 

Option two is a divorced single mother of 5.   Income is ok, credit is superior, wants to stay local but admits the unit is smaller than what she is ideally looking for.  This hesitation makes me think tenancy would be 1-2 years, maybe a little longer.

The third option is a freshly divorced mother of 3, income is ok, and is looking for anything she can get into.  Credit is good, works local, would probably settle in a little longer than the others.

Doing this for the first time is harder than I thought.  Has anyone had issues with child support being a significant portion of the monthly income? And is a middle aged adult with no credit history a red flag?

As always, I appreciate your thoughts and recommendations!

Elena C.