All Forum Posts by: Anne Graviet

It seems you're concerned about tenant housekeeping so look inside their car - how they keep their car is usually how they keep their house. And you can even go look inside their house too and conduct your interview there. But just remember, what you do to one applicant you must do to all the applicants or you're risking a Fair Housing violation.

That's GREAT, Gerald! And when they answer your "how long do you plan to stay" question with "I'd like a 12 month lease, please" then follow it up and ask then "Why do you want to rent HERE?" will any old place do? or does their mother live in the downstairs unit? Finding out their motivation helps to discover what kind of tenant you're getting and possibly for how long - hopefully years and years!

"Why do you want to live here?"

Finding out their motivation for renting your place provides essential clues into how long your prospect might stay. Asking this question can save you hundreds of dollars by reducing turnover.

The family with a freshman high schooler, for example, says they want to rent your place because it's close to the school... and so you can expect they will likely want to stay 4years until graduation day.

The tenant who says "I just need a place to live" is likely bouncing around through life, looking for a place to settle into - might be your place, might not. Keep digging to find out their motivation for needing a place to live - you'll be surprised at the stories they tell!

Best practice, and the cheapest, is to check income, rental history, and credit only. It keeps you out of the Fair Housing office, explaining yourself that it was criminal and not color that caused the denial.

My experience as a legal secretary (criminal defense) taught me that high-powered, notable men such as lawmakers and elected officials often have their cases for pedophilia and drunk driving filed against them as "John Doe" to protect their identity and preserve their status as Pillars of Society.

May I please see a copy of your written requirements Steve? I don't need the whole thing - just the part about criminal records and denial.

I was wrong, it's not "illegal" but you're flirting with big trouble if you do. When you start running criminal background checks on applicants and denying based on what you find, you're opening up potential Fair Housing violations.

For instance, if you deny for DUI but not for car theft. Or if you deny for 3 DUIs, but less than 3 is ok. Once you start denying for this crime or that crime, a tenant could say that you denied based on their color, for example. But you didn't deny for color - you denied for their record but the tenant feels that you're not being truthful and you're using that as a cover up for being racist and now you've got a Fair Housing case opened up on you.

It's best to deny for credit, income, and prior rental history and keep it to that only.

Don't get too worried about crackheads and meth labs - like I said before, those people do not have good credit and you deny for that reason. OP's fellow seems to be the exception with his good credit and jail history and that's incredibly rare. I've never seen it in my career yet but I suppose it's possible.

I'm saying that I was trained that it's wrong to deny based on a criminal record - they've paid their debt to society. Landlords need to rent to the best qualified and the best qualified is the person with the most motivation not to screw things up inside your rental.

My worst tenant had the best application I had ever seen - my best tenant was homeless and jobless until I rented him an apt and gave him $10 for gas so he could go get a job, which he did.

My source is my training in Property Mgmt when a sex offender applied for an apartment and my manager said what I wrote above.

Bottom line is you need a tenant who pays rent on time and doesn't thrash your property, regardless of their present and past history - you need to bank on their future as a tenant.

It's illegal to deny based on prison time. They've paid their debt to society. Often they have terrible credit so it's not usually an issue, but your guy is the exception.

So what you need to do is make a judgement call. Great people w/great jobs & great credit can get laid off tomorrow and you've got an eviction that you didn't expect.

In contract, some struggling people who have nearly lost everything recognize this is their last chance and their only hope, so they don't blow it.

You have to decide if this tenant is going to make the best of his last chance or if he's the type of person who blows up every good opportunity that comes his way.