Bad Credit does not = bad Tenant, just saying... (Fresno, Post: landlord, calculating)

[radiolibre99]

I have no answers or simple solutions. The main gist of my point was that while that people shouldn't think that they're working under an infallible value free system where they're just making these rational self interested decisions. There are certain issues I think are associated with relying too much on the credit reporting/credit scoring system and that this translates into value judgements made on people, i.e. saying that it's simply a matter of "personal responsibility" and what not. It's much more complex than that.

[Trainwreck20]

Oh, I fully understand that some people get the short-end of the stick for reasons beyond their control; OTOH, I had a roommate that made up for it by randomly not paying his portion of the rent. I am pretty sure his credit rating sucked big time based on his financial decisions that I was aware of. He was the most convincing liar, too, so you would never know he had an issue in the world. His main concern was driving a nice car and wining and dining women, not paying his roommate for the rent.

[radiolibre99]

No doubt there are scum out there and owners of property have every right to protect their investments. My point was that they shouldn't act as though they're operating on a perfect value free system that allows them to make totally rational judgments on people.

[Aquitaine]

My point was that they shouldn't act as though they're operating on a perfect value free system that allows them to make totally rational judgments on people.

You are missing the forest for the trees and confusing supply and demand for errors in judgment. We (landlords) ARE making totally rational judgments. That you object to the scoring system does not make them irrational; we didn't come up with the system. We are very limited by law in what we can do. Therefore, the rational thing to do is to make the best use of the best information available. Whatever else you can say about FICO, however annoying it can be for everyone, it is the same ruleset for everyone. There are no surprises. It can game you when you're on the bad end of the scale but you can game it to get on the good end of the scale using methods available on a million web sites and this very thread.

For the key judgment - will you be accepted as a tenant - to be irrational, it would have to be based on arbitrary or inconsistent methods, such as precisely what you've implied. An irrational judgment would mitigate risk less well than a rational one. But when a landlord says 'no' to someone, the only time that's irrational or adding to his risk is if there is not someone else to say 'yes' to waiting in the wings. If all you owned to your name was one rental property and you had no other means for income, you would be damn sure through any mechanism available, no matter how imperfect, that you were making the most rational choice you could.

The rental market where passing up a potentially good tenant is a bad move exists. When you only get one application in a month, then you have incentive to look past the score and seriously interview someone whose numbers are not where you'd like them. Austin is not one such market. That isn't my fault or Steve's fault. We don't make the rules but we have to play the game, same as everyone else.

[Vacanegro]

Get a recommendation letter with contact details from a previous landlord of 24 months or more. As a landlord, I would overlook low credit scores although I would probably want an extra month of deposit.

[A-Tex]

Originally Posted by radiolibre99

No doubt there are scum out there and owners of property have every right to protect their investments. My point was that they shouldn't act as though they're operating on a perfect value free system that allows them to make totally rational judgments on people.

No one is saying any system is perfect, but this is the best legally defensible system we have. Like Steve, I've seen a ton of these detailed reports over the years and there are very very few of them where there's anything other than people racking up debt then not paying their bills. I get when people say they pay their landlord first even when they have mounting debts, but the brutally honest truth is those people are one judgement and subsequent wage garnishment away from not having a choice in that matter. We don't have to risk that.

[CptnRn]

We might be seeing some new evaluation systems coming out in the future that will tell landlords much more about prospective tenants.

New security software systems scours the internet for data about you, including your FACEBOOK POSTS, to determine your "THREAT SCORE". Big Brother is watching you!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...a0c_story.html

FRESNO, Calif. — While officers raced to a recent 911 call about a man threatening his ex-girlfriend, a police operator in headquarters consulted software that scored the suspect’s potential for violence the way a bank might run a credit report.
The program scoured billions of data points, including arrest reports, property records, commercial databases, deep Web searches and the man’s social- media postings. It calculated his threat level as the highest of three color-coded scores: a bright red warning.

As a national debate has played out over mass surveillance by the National Security Agency, a new generation of technology such as the Beware software being used in Fresno has given local law enforcement officers unprecedented power to peer into the lives of citizens.

[Aquitaine]

New security software systems scours the internet for data about you, including your FACEBOOK POSTS

Probably a non-starter for landlords. It's not a great system since it could 'clear' people who have horrible social media posts that are just restricted so the bot can't see them, and even if it could, I doubt landlords would be allowed to discriminate on that basis.