All Forum Posts by: Hilary Mayhew

Please also be wary of "advice" here that sounds a lot like housing discrimination against section 8 tenants in particular.

Doing your due diligence about any and all applicants is a good way to avoid being "seduced" by a terrible tenant who "seemed so nice", as much as it prevents you from rejecting a great renter with a great track record, who may be falsely stereotyped.  

Others here have given good advice about how to do more due diligence research on both applicants, which is helpful for me too as I consider new tenants and I'll be putting that into practice. Calling the second to last landlord instead of the recent one is definitely on my list of great tips. 

Lastly, I'd weigh the risk of another month of vacancy against the risk of non payment or needing to evict someone later. Maybe one or both applications check out, or maybe they don't, and you want to wait for different applicants.