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Old 02-11-2011, 07:51 PM
 
20,948 posts, read 19,015,110 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bookie32 View Post
I have a nice single family home that I am trying to rent in Maryland. My realtor has presented me with an application from a family. Here is their situation.


~Filed for bankruptcy in July 2009 due to wife being on bedrest during difficult pregnancy and falling behind on mortgage and car loan payments.

~Bankruptcy discharged in November 2009

~They surrendered their home in the bankruptcy so they moved into a rental in September 2009. Landlord states that they have never been late, and that she hates to see them go. The applicants also provided 17 cancelled checks as proof.

~Household income is 105,000 annually plus $400/month received in child support. They have 4 children.

~They have no late payments or collection accounts since the bankruptcy was filed. They have four credit cards, three with a $0 balance and one with a balance of $1015. So out of $4,050 worth of credit, they are using $1015.00. They also have a car payment of $300.

~The rent is $2600.

My agent said that her office usually uses Saferent, but because of the bankruptcy and the past collections that are still on their credit, she was almost certain that they would not score high enough on the SafeRent scale. She "felt a good vibe from the family" so my realtor had the applicants and their realtor come to her office and they pulled their own credit reports in front of my agent and my agent provided me with actual copies of their reports. Everything that they stated in their letter to me was accurate and the only collection accounts were medical bills that were all discharged with the bankruptcy.

Would you rent to them?

All of the other applicants have either bad credit w/o bankruptcy or poor rental history. My only other options are to lower the rent or wait it out and I can't really afford either.

What do you think?
They sound like good people....grab them up!
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Old 02-11-2011, 08:17 PM
 
Location: North
858 posts, read 1,801,588 times
Reputation: 1102
I wouldn't. Making more than $100K/yr and they filed bankrupcy for a pregnancy bedrest? Didn't they have any savings? That means they live above their means and if anything happens again (job lost, sickness, etc) they might default again.
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Old 02-12-2011, 07:15 AM
 
Location: Virginia Beach
25 posts, read 165,316 times
Reputation: 24
Quote:
Originally Posted by 20yrsinBranson View Post
I wouldn't.

I wouldn't rent to anyone with 4 children. Not no how, not no way. Of course I would never tell anyone that because I wouldn't want to be sued (even though, as I have mentioned before, it is perfectly legal in Missouri if you only own one house that you are renting).

Anyway, financially, I would not be comfortable with them either.

20yrsinBranson
Its not ever OK to violate federal fair housing laws (familial status is a protected class under the federal fair housing act). I think the only exemptions for familial status are for designated "housing for older persons" or if you are renting out a unit in a multi-family building in which you, the owner, are actually residing.

I'm glad that the OP decided to take a double deposit from this family...not a terrible thing to take a chance on someone when they are willing to be straight with you but always a necessity to CYA with some extra money.
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