All Forum Posts by: Jason Cox

Maybe they want to use it as a growhouse.

 I wish I could give this post 1000 rep points. Sure the double deposit helps the landlord a little bit but it still doesn't really mean the tenant has any skin in the game. They could have gotten that extra deposit money from their mom. Double deposit doesn't deter potential bad behavior and rule breaking from an irresponsible person. 

I think extra deposit has it's place, maybe in situations where someone hasn't been in their current job long enough. But it isn't a cure all for bad applicants. 

Morning update to my post:

I think you can handle the paperwork side of this. It's not that hard. You will have to buy a rental  application and a lease from someone. An attorney. Or maybe this website has those available for purchase. You would also need a simple Holding Fee agreement. As you go on being a landlord you will find things you want to add to your lease based on experiences you have with tenants.  Take the paperwork part out of your decision.

The real issue, if you want to do this on your own, is how much free time do you have to spend on dealing with the applicants and how long can you afford to let the place sit vacant with no income coming in. Is the house mortgaged or free and clear. You may get lucky and find a good tenant quickly but more likely this is going to be a slog of a couple months of showings with some frustration involved since you are new at this process.

It's hard to answer because I don't know anything about the PM company in question. My concern with someone who does a one off service like this is that they are gone once the tenant is placed  -- do they have incentive to take the time to find someone good or will they just put the first person who they consider marginally acceptable in there. 

There are some PMs whose default criteria are kind of weak -- they will take an applicant with an old eviction, credit scores in the 500s. That would not be my choice of tenant. That is something to find out about in advance before agreeing to this.

Do you get to read the lease they are offering beforehand, at least?

If you try to place the person yourself, yes it will be tedious, not only because you are new at this but also because this is the time of year when it starts to get hard to find decent tenants. You will need to come up with the correct rent amount for the unit which isn't as easy as it sounds -- it can take some trial and error and price drops. You could conceivably have a vacant unit until some time next year, depending on the demand/quality of tenants in your area.

Sorry if this is not the most helpful answer. Both options have unknowns and drawbacks.

Credit check and public records first. That will wash out about 80% of the applications . Then move on to employment and rental reference check if they pass the first two screens. If you are accepting pets you need to be very cautious to verify what kind of animal they actually have -- a lot of people will tell lies to get undesirable pets into units. Get a driver's license from  each applicant, compare the address on the DL to the rental references on the app.

If you are advertising your rental online right now I suggest you pull the ad for a few days until you get get your written process for  doing this in order. Then repost the ad.

Their life priorities are completely out of whack.  Just had someone contact me. He has an emotional support pit mix. He says it MUST stay with him because it is old and needs special care. Non-negotiable.

You can't fix stupid.

Credit:

Look at a credit report and their debts. If their debt to income ratio is too high don't rent to them.

No utility bills in collection, no collections to property management companies.

No back child support owed.

For showings and phone/email:

Abusive, argumentative, or uncooperative with rental process = reason for denial.

Hard pass on this applicant. Everyone claims their dog is sweet.