All Forum Posts by: Nicholas Miller

he alleges that the renter was aggressively argumentative, held rent hostage for minor repairs, left the apartment dirty and in disrepair.

I have a prospective renter who looks good on paper (no prior evictions, stability at job, decent income...)  The one red flag I think I see is that he is breaking his 24-month lease after 18 months.  When I called the current landlord I get nothing but praise regarding this tenants "always pays rent on time" "great renter" "devastated to lose him".  However, when I call the previous landlord (the one from 18 months ago) I get horror stories about this renter.  

Should I trust the current landlord?  Should I trust the previous landlord?  I have heard the most effective reference questions are open-ended, however, I feel like one of the two past landlords is either lying to me or trying to accomplish a personal vendetta (either offloading a bad tenant early for the current landlord or possibly the previous is trying to tarnish this renters reputation due to a personal conflict)

What are the most effective previous landlord questions?  What are the most effective "not" open-ended questions?

@Gail K. - subletting to a drug dealer...  Ouch.

Last summer I rented to a gentleman who had a colorful past however I had never screened my tenants based on criminal history...   After 38 days it was clear that the landlord/tenant relationship was not going to work as he was already behind on his rent and there were some settle threats from him to me.  I filed for an eviction, two weeks after he was escorted out of the property by the Sherif I was notified by the courts that I was being counter-sued for $5,000.  He lost the counterclaim and was almost locked up for contempt of court by the judge due to a violent outbreak when the judge awarded me the claim rather than him.  After the hearing the gentleman followed me to my car and yelled threats (none of which have come to pass).

I would like to avoid working with this clientele in the future and was wondering what words of wisdom my associates might be able to provide?  What "criminal history" do you allow in your units?  What don't you allow?  What would you recommend I use as future guidelines?   

Get involved with the local REIA group and listen to the "class clown".  I have owned rentals for 15 years, had my real estate license for 5 years and I thought I knew the tricks of the trade...  Then I met Kolin, his methods are not traditional and neither are the results and if you are willing to listen and think outside the box he can teach you how to get into the real estate market with no money.

I will be there looking forward to it

Thanks for the input everyone.  I agree that more than 5 questions are needed to properly screen a tenant and I certainly ask more than 5 questions in my rental application however my goal is to gage what the top 5 questions are.  If for some reason you were limited to 5 questions what would they be and why.

the link took me to this   @Ben Staples

@Ben Staples - I know this is an older post but I would like to see this trello board.  

@Marcia Maynard - I was not able to find the resource you mentioned could you provide a link or the list?