Renter Screening in Alberta, Canada

[Tobi Ayanleke]

I got several people interesting in renting out my townhouse here in Calgary. 2 potential candidates so far. The first one is trying to negotiate 1 month free rent while the 2nd one wants to sign already with no demands.

The second one came in for viewing and the only thing is was curious about was the Electrical Board(Calculating the amps to make sure it was not 60 Amps and that it is 100Amps). That seemed odd to me since most renters would be curious about other things like kitchen , furnace e.t.c. 

He also sent his rental application with no references what so ever saying he owns his company and providing few friends as references when I told him he didnt provide any references.

What do you guys think?

[Ken Didychuk]

Should be obvious not to go with candidate #2. If the first one has solid references and you feel they will rent for the long-term, then why not? Aren't the vacancy rates in CGY still pretty high? You may have to wait a month or two for a decent tenant to present themselves anyways so why not lock a good one up early and take only a one month hit?