All Forum Posts by: Lily Yu

 The only reason I'm considering this tenant at all is because of the mother's assets. I live in a historically low income area so I always run into issues with people being able to pay rent. The mother was willing to pay for the whole year upfront in escrow. Which is not necessary and a little tricky legally, but she certainly has enough money to pay their rent so that is not my concern. 

I am just one person with one experience but I will tell you in my experience the property managers I've dealt with have been the biggest thieves of all. It doesn't happen like a tenant, all at once, but it's death by a thousand paper cuts. I have had good property managers but a majority of them have been bad which is why I now manage everything myself. In fact, all the worst tenants I ever got were once put in by property managers. 

 I haven't paid for the background check yet but she said it was a non-violent possession felony. He got laid off in April and she said that he will look for a job once he finds out where he's going to end up since I guess he's not sure if he's going to stay in that town if he cannot find housing. 

as far as I can tell there's nothing wrong with him except for the felony and maybe just a lack of motivation? 

The mother is willing to be the main tenant which I think at least shows she thinks he is going to be responsible enough. 

A few of my red flags: 

He didn't call me, she did. 

He was living in their family home which is being sold. He literally has to be out in a few weeks. So it did occur to me that she could be extremely desperate to find him somewhere to live and be ready to lie. Desperation makes people do crazy things. 

He did have a case against him from a former landlord. His mother told me that in 2016 He moved out of an apartment without paying last month's rent. Allegedly that is what the case is about. 

I am considering renting to someone who

1. Was a drug addict but allegedly clean for 5 years. Had a felony arrest 5 years ago. 

2. Has bad credit

3. Has no job

hear me out. 

his mother contacted me. He is living in their family investment home but she's selling it and she's looking for somewhere for him to go. She has significant enough assets. She is willing to sign on as the main tenant which means she is responsible for the apartment. 

my thoughts thinking out loud:

the other prospective tenants have income issues so at least in this case I know the rent will be paid. 

the mother has pretty significant assets (low 6 figures + another 6 figures from sale of the house) 

if he destroys the property I could go after her for it right? She would be listed as a tenant even though she would not live there. 

he has supposedly been clean for years. The mother would not be willing to sign on and risk her assets if she thought there was a chance he could relapse and destroy the place, I'd assume. 

other thoughts: say he has unsavory friends and starts inviting them over. So the rent is paid, but he is disturbing the neighbors, or stealing things, or smoking cigarettes indoors or something. He would be in violation of the lease and would need to be evicted. I'd have to hire a lawyer. Could I go after his mother for these costs? 

i want to give him a chance. I'm familiar with recovery and addiction and I know some people just need to turn their life around. But also need to protect myself. 

I love TrueRent and I am devastated they got bought out. I played around in RenTec and I don't like it as much, plus it is double the price for me managing 22 properties.

What has everyone else moved to? I am considering RentRedi and Innago. I don't use it for tenant payments at all, only for keeping track of expenses and income, so I don't use a lot of the features on some of these sites.

I don't like that RentRedi doesn't allow you to record last month's rent and they don't have an option to create your own categories for expense payees, such as a particular contractor. 

Does anyone else have any suggestions?