Landlord Question and Answer Forum

I've had nothing but problems in the past with Tenants being super friendly and easy to work with upfront...and once their foot was in the door, the problems started. Now I have a new situation and hope someone can help me with this. My prospective Tenants want to give me three months rent upfront at move in. I have read that this is a no no but can't seem to find a reason as to why I shouldn't accept the rent. I feel almost certain that this is a ploy on the Tenants behalf but don't know what it is. Anyone know what's up with this?

I have had experience with this. Once I had a tenant who wanted to pay me for a year up front. I kept asking them why and they just kept saying that they preferred it this way. When I told them I was going to conduct a credit check, they got upset and didn't understand why if I was getting all the rent up front. It is hard to turn down someone waving a full years rent in front of you. I finally got their approval for a credit check and the credit was aweful and yes, there were past evictions. Needless to say I turned them down. I did so because, a year is nice but if I have to spend a ton of money to remove them at the end of the year, I end up losing anyway. Better to have a tenant who pays regularly each month. For me, when people who want to pay that much up front, it becomes a BIG red flag.

Posted by Denise S, PA on Thursday, May 29, 2008