Landlord Question and Answer Forum

We have an applicant who had a foreclosure situation and was evicted from his foreclosure condo. Couple's ages in low thirties. Has a new baby < 1 yr. Both parents work, have stable jobs for 2-3 yrs. Current landlord of about 1 year says no late rent, and that they are easy tenants... We know evictions are bad, but in this case, should we be worried? Thoughts?

What about criminal history? With my experience in the industry, I quickly learned not to judge a book by its cover! If the rest of their credit lines are in good standing,and they have a clean criminal record, I wouldnt hang your hat on the foreclosure information. You will be hard pressed to find an applicant that doesn't have credit issues in this economy!

Posted by Tami Z, WA on Thursday, November 10, 2011

Hi Hung, you might like risk assessment solutions that tie all the pieces together for you and provide a scoring engine based on statistical data for renters across the U.S. I know the big property management software companies do this, such as Buildum and RealPage's resident screening solutions. (not sure if this will work, but here's an example: http://www.realpage.com/tenant-screening/resident-screening/resident-screening). Anyway, the point is it helps you make more objective decisions regarding tenant feasibility... just a thought.

Posted by Gerda O, MS on Thursday, April 12, 2012

For what it's worth, I tend to agree with Tami.

Posted by Bob R, CA on Thursday, April 12, 2012