Renters and landlords (apartments, agreement, tenant, renter's insurance)

[goodlife36]

I am in the process of renting out my property and I have had quite of bit of interest. I have had some close calls but it has not worked out. I would like to know what the prospective tenant expects to provide a landlord to secure a property and vice versa. My requirements are as follow:

1 month rent and 1 month rent plus 100 for security
Income 3x the rent
Application
Background check
Employment letter
2 references including previous landlord
2 recent bank statements
W2
Government ID
Renter's insurance
Separate bank check or money order for first month rent and security
Is this too much? The renter's insurance and the income requirement are non negotiable.

I am so confused. What am I doing wrong?

[tworent]

1 month rent and 1 month rent plus 100 for security First and last would not work in my town and 100 security is low call Apartments and other rentals to find out if you are asking the right amount
Income 3x the rent Debt to income is more important IMO
Application
Background check OK
Employment letter Waste of time
2 references including previous landlord Big waste of time They can be the worst tenant I have ever had if you call me I will you they are great just to get rid of them.
2 recent bank statements
W2 Why
Government ID OK
Renter's insurance why do you care if they have insurance for their stuff just make sure the no you only cover the property.
Separate bank check or money order for first month rent and security OK but cash is better I can make a money order with a good printer
Is this too much? The renter's insurance and the income requirement are non negotiable. Yes-Insurance look above what’s better
Rent 1000 you need them to make 3000 that’s great but if they have other bills now add a car payment 300, credit cards, 250 and so on. My way rent 1000 they make 2500 with no monthly bills. So go by Debt to Income

[pendleton42]

renters insurance covers damage done by tenant and their guest.

[campion]

I'd be annoyed to have to provide bank statements, a W2, and an employment letter for renting. One of the three ought to be sufficient: if a person is moving for a job they'll have an employment letter (and potentially a higher salary than might be reflected on pay stubs or W2s). If they're already working at a job then either the W2/pay stubs or bank statements ought to be enough.

I'd jump all over an offer like you're making for up front payment: I just paid first, last, security of 1.5x rent plus a $250 pet fee to rent a house. Yours might be a bit of a low-ball offer.

Requiring renter's insurance is reasonable.

References are a tough one. There are so many reasons why otherwise reasonable rental situations turn disastrous that aren't necessarily the fault of the tenant. I certainly couldn't have asked my previous landlord for a reference considering what she tried to do to me.

[CarlitosBala]

Originally Posted by goodlife36

I am in the process of renting out my property and I have had quite of bit of interest. I have had some close calls but it has not worked out. I would like to know what the prospective tenant expects to provide a landlord to secure a property and vice versa. My requirements are as follow:

1 month rent and 1 month rent plus 100 for security
Income 3x the rent
Application
Background check
Employment letter
2 references including previous landlord
2 recent bank statements
W2
Government ID
Renter's insurance
Separate bank check or money order for first month rent and security
Is this too much? The renter's insurance and the income requirement are non negotiable.

I am so confused. What am I doing wrong?

First month, Last month AND an extra month for security. Non negotiable. $100 for security is laughable.

References are not that important, anybody can pretend to be anybody on the phone. The only references I take seriously are, work references (you call their work to confirm their employment and wages) and their previous, previous landlord. Think about it.. if you have a bad tenant, you are likely to give them a glowing review just to get rid of them, but if you already got rid of bad tenants, there is no incentive to lie about them.

Employment letter, again, can easily be faked.

I think everything else looks good.

To be honest with you, the first thing I do is a bit of google sleuthing. Its amazing what you can find out about people on the internet with some basic information and a simple understanding on how Google works. For example, I have a property on the market for rent. With just a single email that was sent yesterday, I was able to find out this person's real name, their LinkedIn profile, Facebook profile, profiles for a few discussion forums, where she works, who she reports to at work, a few family pictures, what university she attended, and what her past previous jobs were. All this costs me nothing other than 10 minutes of my time, and its all before I ever replied to this email or talked to her on the phone. I do this with all my applicants and I've already dodged my fair share of bullets (people who look great on paper, but they would have been terrible tenants).

[oregonwoodsmoke]

$100 security is not enough. Security deposit should be very close to the amount of rent. If move-in total is too much for your local tenants, drop the last month rent requirement, not the deposit.

Employers do not like to be bothered, so it is too much to ask applicants to provide an employment letter (Wait. You don't give a location. Are you in the USA?)

2 landlord references, current and prior. The current might lie to get rid of them, the prior landlord has already gotten rid of them and will normally tell the truth. You can verify addresses on their credit report, where all addresses of record will be listed. About this, I've got to say I have had enough current landlords advise me to not take the applicant. They won't all lie to get rid of a bad one.

Don't bother with any sort of letter, like a written landlord reference. Anyone with a computer and printer can manufacture all the letters you'd like to see. You must do all your own research and verify everything the applicant tells you independently of what the applicant gives you.

It's no problem to require renter's insurance, and it is a good idea, but they can't get the insurance until after they have secured the rental because they must have an address.

Now, you must understand that the majority of lookers are simply looky-loos. It beats me why people want to spend their weekend looking at apartments they can't rent, but they do. In fact a lot of them do. So you will show the unit to a lot of people who are not really shopping for a place to live.

If you get a lot of lookers and nobody puts in an application, then your price is too high.

Try dropping the requirement for letters and documents. Tenants don't want to be bothered to gather them together. Increase that deposit amount. See if that works.

But if it still doesn't rent, you need to start dropping the price by $25 a week until you start getting applications.

Once you start receiving applications, you still have to screen and you might reject a dozen or more before someone's application will finally look like they might be a good tenant.

[campion]

I read the OP's post about the security deposit as being equal to one full month's rent plus an additional $100. So if the rent were $1000, the security deposit would be $1100. Which is better, and like I said, I'd jump on that if I liked the place considering most are 1.5x the rent.

[wireyourworld]

I see what you're saying campion, I had read it as one month rent, one month rent (I was assuming that was the last months rent) and $100 for security.

Again my experience leads me to charge first month, last month and a full month for the security deposit. This comes from the damages left by other tenants, who skip out without paying their final month or months. This is standard here in normal times, seems to be unexpected by potential tenants in harder times (oh well), others financial difficulties should not inspire me to make them my own.

[campion]

Originally Posted by wireyourworld

I see what you're saying campion, I had read it as one month rent, one month rent (I was assuming that was the last months rent) and $100 for security.

Again my experience leads me to charge first month, last month and a full month for the security deposit. This comes from the damages left by other tenants, who skip out without paying their final month or months. This is standard here in normal times, seems to be unexpected by potential tenants in harder times (oh well), others financial difficulties should not inspire me to make them my own.

Yep, unless you're renting a tenement or a slum, first, last, and full to 1.5x security is pretty standard.

It sucks for the renter trying to come up with thousands of dollars up front, I will say. Especially when a move comes a bit quicker than one anticipates! For example, last August I interviewed for a new job in another state. I was offered the job on August 31, for a start date in mid-December. So I thought I had three months to save up some money. But then the employer asked me to start at the beginning of November. There was some serious scrambling going on to pull together deposits, let me tell you! It's tough when you're moving from a job where you're living almost paycheck to paycheck trying to save. Heck, the whole reason to take the new job is to be able to save! Oh well, we all find a way to manage I guess.

I'm curious about your take on employment letters. When I was looking in the fall, I had proof of current employment, but I was relying on the employment letter to get me a better rental based on a higher income. Would you not have taken that offer of employment, or perhaps called to confirm the offer?

[wireyourworld]

As a landlord I have not had the experience of someone wanting to move in on an offer of employment. I did however move to florida with a transfer through the postal service. I did have the offer/agreement of transfer, that I would be employed upon arrival, basically with the same company though. I went through a rental agency and met with the agency prior to moving or even securing the transfer, in person, so I was not just a faceless person. I was then able to call the agency when the transfer was confirmed (one postmaster had to accept me and my current postmaster had to agree to let me leave), and then the agent looked for a place for me. I was in CT moving to Florida.

To be honest, in your case if I had more than one qualified applicant I would take the one with cash in hand, who already lived in the area and could show secure employment. If all else being equal.