All Forum Posts by: Aram V.

Another question: why are you considering an applicant that won't move in until November? That's two months away.

When a tenant breaks their lease, you have a legal responsibility to make a "good faith effort" to rent the unit as quickly as possible. Surely the market is strong enough you can find someone to move in earlier than November.

My policy is to only hold a unit vacant for one week. After that, they have to start paying rent, utilities, take responsibility for landscaping, etc. I would never hold something for two months, not even for Warren Buffet.

What type of class property is this?  I can say when I first got married my wife had horrible credit, I was 790-815 depending and she had something in the 400’s.  Never had an issue getting a rental.

    It’s a person or couple as a whole, as a whole they have enough income and a plan to move to the new city.  They are even staying separate until they get a job.  Sounds like people wanting to move and have a plan for the move.

    Seems like a no brainer to me and I’d rent to them.   Only question I would have is do they have an additional rental cost in Chicago until they both move down?  If so can they cover both. 

1. You  should be worried that your Property Manager is asking for your advice. They should be the expert.

2. Are they married? Just because they have kids together doesn't mean much in today's world. If they are married, that will increase stability. If they are not, there is an increase to risk.

3. Whether married or not, they are not perfect tenants and present an increase to risk. Therefore, you should only accept them if you have a way to mitigate that risk.

4. Last months' rent is one way of mitigating risk but it's not the best. The ideal option is to increase the deposit equal to two month's rent. Why? Because Tenants are more likely to behave when you hold a lot of money! If you charge them last month's rent, they'll apply that towards their last month and you'll only have one month's rent left as the deposit. if you hold two months as the deposit, that's a big chunk of change they'll want to get back so they're more likely to pay their last month's rent and return the property in good condition. Besides, last month's rent requires additional tracking whereas an increased deposit does not.

Check your state laws. Some states do not allow last month's rent or higher deposits.

@Aram V. It depends on the class of the property. Is this A,B,C etc? For me I would accept these tenants.

@Aram V. I’m from Michigan and I see you’re in Florida. Adam I would make sure that your allowed to collect last months rent as well and what stipulations come with that ... many states have stipulations on that. However, if given the choice of last months rent or a co-signer... co-signer is the better way to go... bet the co-signer the same way as you do an applicant and you’ll be solid.

@Aram V. You can always mitigate your risk by increasing your security deposit to the max and asking for a consigner. But honestly 640 credit should not be an issue so long as there are evictions and they make over 3x’s the rent amount. Honestly if you’re looking for any better than that, you’re not looking for renter... you’re looking for a home owner, and guaranteed they will not remain your tenants for long for the fact that they have other options open to them.

If one applicant qualifies on their own then what your really have is one qualified applicant with the added assurance of another on applicant named on the lease as well... tenants are much less likely to default and go all the way to eviction when there are more than one person named on the lease. Hope this helps.

Do either have any evictions or judgments (whether RE-related or otherwise) against them? If so, that will make the pass easier. If not you can always try and buffer risk by asking for last month's rent (and not just first month's rent and the security deposit).