Tenant Found Own Replacement

A log time tenant called to tell us he was moving out of the area and would be moving out. He had lived in our duplex for 3 years, has taken great care of it, and has almost always paid on time.

Sad to lose him but glad to be able to raise rent another $25/month. True market rent is difficult to calculate since there is so little available in our neighborhood, but rents are up everywhere.

A few days later he contacted us that his cousin is really interested in renting the place, could he get an application. A week later we signed paperwork with the cousin, they passed screening with flying colors.

One red flag is the fake social security numbers, same as the current tenant. We mitigate our risk by requiring last month rent, which we don’t normally do. The only moment of panic was when I introduced the crime free addendum by using the word illegal, oops!