All Forum Posts by: Amanda H.

First timer landlords here, so sorry if this question is dumb. I spoke to a very nice lady who is interested in our rental home (our personal home currently). Her husband is career military and will retire soon. She moved herself and her kids back to our town to be near her ailing father, her husband will join later this summer. Being that he is over 18 and will occupy the house during the lease term, we should still require he submit to our background check (and pay the application fee), correct? At what time is he added to the lease, when he arrives or at initial signing? I'm just not sure how it works when one party is out of state. 

I do know discrimination cases have come up over refusal to accept. And they have sided with the prospective tenant. The fine in Oregon is $11,000.

Sue Kelly,

Thank you, most of that is in our criteria. Do we have to have this information posted for people to see upon viewing the home? Things like "rude behavior," references by non-related individuals, etc? I do have a list of criteria (mostly financial and criminal history related) I've posted on our refrigerator so that people will know prior to applying what we are looking for. 

I am located in Oregon, first time landlord. Our open house is tomorrow and someone has already mentioned they have Section 8 vouchers. My understanding is that it is an opt-in program? But that conflicts with the fact that it is "discriminatory" to tell people that you do not accept Section 8, or to refuse to accept it. I'm so confused. I am not interested in jumping through hoops to get my home "qualified," it would likely delay the move in and therefore impact my income.

Can I still hold the applicants to the same income requirements or am I forced to make accommodations for Section 8? That almost seems discriminatory toward everyone else. Would their voucher count toward income requirements?

Here is a local story, I'm discouraged by it.

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2014/...

What reason can I give? I just want to tread lightly so as not to cause any problems.

Hello,

My name is Amanda. My husband and I are going to be moving soon and will be renting our townhome in Oregon. We are the first owners (and it was our first home), have lived in it for 5 years. We have never been landlords before. I have done a ton of research and we are very by the book people. We have not yet advertised the property, but I did respond to someone looking for a place in a Facebook group I'm in. They are coming to see the property this weekend. Since we agreed to the meeting, the woman has been kind of hounding me with questions via Facebook. I can tell she's extremely eager, but it's getting annoying. She also mentioned a couple things that were a red flag when we spoke. For example, her primary reason for wanting to move at this time (in addition to needing more room) is a tense situation with her downstairs neighbor over noise (my prospective tenant being the accused noise-maker). She also intends to babysit out of the home (I'm not sure if she's a licensed provider or not). She already has 4 kids of her own, additional kids means even more wear and tear on our home. I mentioned I was not comfortable with the liability situation that puts us in as well as the CC&R's for our development that prohibit property owners from having businesses where people would be coming and going regularly. And they need the place very soon, two weeks from now. I feel like this is a failure of good planning on their part.

My question is this...a realtor friend told me I could not accept an application knowing they don't qualify...or something along those lines. If they meet minimum qualifications, though, don't we have to accept the application? Even if we're feeling like we probably don't want to rent to them? They seem kind of like drama.