Landlord Question and Answer Forum

I have a tenant applying for a really nice house. The husbands credit is mosh due to foreclosure. Wife credit is so-so but not terrible, and they have two relatives also moving in. They are claiming the income from husband, and relatives, and unemployment for wife. They have the income but I'm skittish - they have very little rental history after the foreclosure and it was recent one too (less than 4 yrs ago). Is this mistake to even consider this tenant? I do NOT want to end up with a problem... Thanks -

I would check on their other bills, and see how they typically do with them. Look out for people who are habitually late on payments and in hot water with creditors, but if you see that they only had one problem with their payments, 4 years ago, they might be ok.

Posted by Ralph F, CA on Friday, April 3, 2009

Sometimes you have to bend a liitle bit Usually you can weed out bad tennants with a credit check. A Fico score can tell a lot The main thing is protecting your self. Think about smokers and animals, children and how many parking spaces they are going to use Have good liability insurance,do a checklist with your tennant and have them sign off and take pictures of the place before they move in Some tennants are looking for places with code violations so guess what They won't have to pay rent Yea you can get them out about 6 months latter, Sometimes that little old lady from Passadenia with the change purse that pays you every month then the guy with the wife and the five kids and the Hot Rod Lincoln

Posted by Donald G, MA on Saturday, April 4, 2009