Never Trust Your Gut

About 6 years ago I bought my very own place for the first time. It was a 1,010 sq ft, 3 bed 2 bath condo. I settled on a condo because at the time it was all I could afford (no yard equipment purchases, low maintenance, and small monthly payments). After living there for a few years I talked to my buddy who is renting out several units in my same area who swears by the "buy and hold" strategy. I decided to rent mine out. I started with family members. Conveniently, my Mom and Dad were building their home and needed a place to live in the mean time after selling their current house. After they were done my brother then moved in. I know, super convenient, right? After my brother was done, I finally had to do real work and find someone to rent out my place.

I wasn't really sure how to do this... I knew one of my friends dad was a PI (private investigator). So I called him up to see if he could help me screen tenants. He said yes, and that he actually does this for multiple landlords looking to rent their places out. I never would've thought of this had I not known anyone that was a PI. After getting a few people coming to look at my place and filling them out, I narrowed it down to two prospects.

One lady I had a pretty good feeling about. She was in her early 50's, seemed like she had a good head on her shoulders, very friendly, sweet personality, and a decent job. 

However, the other tenants (3 of them that wanted to live together). One was a male that was 24 years old and two girls that were both 19. The male, being 24, had a great credit score but the girls had none. I found myself getting nervous even thinking of letting three young, single, kids live in my condo. So, I took the applications to the PI, and low and behold, I find out something very interesting.

The lady that I got great vibes from (probably would've gave her a key to the place if I went with my gut), come to find out she has a payment system set up for her last home that she was evicted from to pay unpaid rent, not so great credit score, and a son with an awful driving record. On top of that, her son had a few legal suits against him. My PI counseled me in to maybe taking a look at the three kids and giving them a chance. Said he had a better feeling about them. 

Finally, one year later, I look back feeling blessed that I went with this PI for screening purposes (knock on wood). My renters have been on time with payments, keep the place looking great, and the guy in the house has fixed a couple very minor things that broke. All in all I'm very happy with the decision. Had I trusted my gut I would have more than likely  been completely ruined on my first experience as an actual land lord!