I personally don't charge an application fee, because of personal reasons...I screen and then let the selected tenant complete the criminal/credit/background check through an independent party that collects the fee.

Someone asked to rent from me and was up front about having maxed out credit cards (they said to pay for family business start-up equipment) but never missing a payment.

I live in, and want to purchase in the very expensive California Bay Area market.720 credit score, no loans or credit card debt with an exception of 50k in low-interest Federal student loans (Currently in grace.)So HERE is my question to all of you knowledgeable and wise real estate investors!

Five friends will be high risk for turning into an animal house.If you're this desperate, I would at least charge extra rent per additional person.

I do have credit cards that I could fall back on if there was an emergency (which in my mind is not ideal, but I could be wrong).

So basically the question I have is what can I charge them for us to clean the house? 

Commissions are negotiated and can be more or less depending on your office policy.Or, again with your managing broker's permission, tell the seller you know several investors that might be interested and get a listing... maybe a limited listing instead of a contract to buy it yourself... maybe as a transaction broker so you're just helping the buyer and seller consummate the sale (not representing either party as a fiduciary) and charge a commission instead of a wholesale fee.Just spit-balling ideas for you, but check with your managing broker to structure something that does work for all of you.

I’ve met commercial loan brokers that charge 2% to setup the deal.

Example.xxxxx1: “O” Checking = All Rent in, Bills/Expenses Out; xxxxx1: “A” Savings = All Reserve funding in, Repairs;xxxxx1: “S” Savings with limited withdrawals = Deposits Held;xxxxx2: “A” Savings = Mortgage Holding account;xxxxx2: “S” Savings = CapEx Reserve Funds;I have a credit card specifically for rental purposes, always paid off from the rental account; and the rest of my personal accounts are all separate.

It only costed me half the charge by doing digging way instead of tunnel way.