All Forum Posts by: Branden Smith

@Andrew Johnson I like your point on the low mortgage rates. I have one rental in Sacramento and my plan is to keep the property and just weather the cycle if or when another downturn happens. I have a 3.25% rate which plays a huge role in me just keeping the house. I am one of the people who live in the Sacramento area and commute to the bay for work. I'm also from Orange County and we know a lot of people who are moving from Southern California to the Sacramento area due to the cost. I don't plan to buy any more rentals in California because I think there has to be a correction at some point but who knows! New builds up here are being built like crazy and have sold signs before they are completed. Once that stops or slows I will start to be more concerned. 

@Yvette M. smart idea. They are relocating to the area so I will not be able to do this for them but will keep it in mind for the other applications as they come in. Since my last post I have received documents for everything I asked about and 12 months of pay stubs showing the federal lein being paid. Together they are currently at 6.3X income and she will be getting a raise for relocating. I have already verified employment but I am in the process of verifying the raise.  

Also all of their tradeline accounts have zero late payments withing nothing past due. Thanks again!

@Yvette M.  @Account Closed    First off thanks everyone for the input! I couldn't image learning this from scratch without the help of everyone on BP. Here is where I am currently at with the applicants. I sent them an email stating all of my concerns and asking for invoices and proof of items that were fixed. I have read enough to know that you have to leave emotion out of this and at the end of the day it is business but so far the responses have been great and there has been no trying to hide anything. If you guys have a moment please read below and let me know what you think.

I sent them the email stating my concerns about the accounts in collections, the judgements, and the tax lein. I received an email back right away where they explained everything in detail. Most of the collections are due to a medical issue they had with a child a couple years back. The judgements for those are settled and the rest of the payments are already being taken care of. The ones I were more concerned about were the others. One was from a toll road ticket that the daughter got while driving their car and never paid. The other they stated that they were unaware that sprint had charged a fee after they canceled an old plan. They said they will take care of it and have sent me an invoice of their current sprint plan which is up to date. I have been sent the other invoice as well showing the last non-medical related collection taken care of. The federal tax lein is from 12 years ago from a  1099 that didn't get filed. She said she has paid 5k towards it and is having the rest paid from her check and is now claiming 0 to put more towards it. I asked for anything that would show was she has paid and the current plan she has in place. Bankruptcy on the second applicant is from family opening credit cards as stated above this is from 2007 so it is old. Other than that the second applicant only has the paid judgements from the medical bills. They are already taken care of. 

The calls to the employer's both went great and I was able to verify them without any troubles. The call to the landlords went great as well. Their current one was not a private company either it was a management company where I had to push some buttons to finally talk to someone. At least I know it wasn't a friend! The company has had no issues with them and they stated that rent is due on the 1st with a grace period until the 5th. The company said the tenants never made a payment past the 1st. They applicants also said they have no issues with automatic payments. 

I have done a lot of digging and asked for a lot of information and they respond immediately each time and have no issues sending me invoices to their credit issues. Their income is more than enough (6.3X) the rent. I feel like I would have chased away bad tenants with how detailed I have been and the information I have asked for, then again this is my first rental so I could be a total mess! Thanks again everyone!

@Account Closed Thank you for your reply as well! The house is in Antelope so i'm sure there is a slight difference in applicants. I have read so many different things saying that medical collections are common. The ones I don't like are the phone/cable collections (2 of them back from a previous house). This is my first time screening and me and my other half both have perfect credit so we are unsure of what we should expect others to have. My plan is to let her know the concerns and see if she can prove they have been resolved. If not at least rentals are in demand. I actually listed a little on the higher side because I am not in a rush so I have no issues lowering the price and finding a (hopefully) great tenant. Let me know what you think of this plan and if you have any advice on what to expect from applicants as far as credit I would love to hear. The guide to tenant screening really helped set some guidelines. Thanks again!

@Yvette M. Thank you for the quick response. I will make sure to do some more detective work. I will add up their DTI and look into. I will be giving them a call after I get some more input on here to let them know my concerns.

Just to clarify both of the applicants applied together. The property is located in Sacramento, CA.

I just received my first applications back along with their credit/criminal history. This will be my first time going through the screening process so any help would be appreciated. To start I used the Ultimate Guide to Tenant Screening and I can easily say it was a huge help. I did set all of the guidelines and I have no doubt it saved me from a lot of phone calls. Now that I received my first credit/background check back from SmartMove I want to make sure I continue to do things right. I have spoke to employer's and the current landlord. Please let me know what you think. Thanks in advance!

Here is some of the information. 

Total of two applicants

overall income to rent- 6.3X

FIRST APPLICANT 

-resident score 626 and the recommendation was accept

-Sole income enough to cover 3X rent

-Total of 7 accounts with 0 past due payments

-Collections: 19 for a totaling around 5K only 3 are not related to medical (looks like phone/cable related)

-1 federal tax lein and 2 civil judgments 

-No evictions on record and no criminal record

SECOND APPLICANT

-Resident score 728 and the recommendation of do not rent (says open bankruptcy but under public records it says there is only one on record and it was settled in 2007)

-No evictions and no criminal records

-0 Past due payments

-3 collections totaling $138 all 3 medical with 2 saying closed to charge off or repossession. 

-Bankruptcies: one chapter 7 bankruptcy dischard/date settled 07/2007

-Judgements: 1 settled in 2015 by the same recovery company for the medical collections

@Alan Siebenaler If I end up moving down there I would love to meet up and talk. I'm actually interested in turn key properties to start! 

Thank you! 

Perfect thank you! If I do get the job offer I will be making a trip down there. I'm in Northern California so it isn't too far. I will let you know if I head down there I would love to meet up if your available!