Is My List of Renter Qualifiers Too Stringent? (house, fee, record)

[prospectheightsresident]

Originally Posted by thrillobyte

You're right. That totally slipped by me. The little computer in the head misfired. There's got to be something wrong with this recommendation. Nobody's going to rent w/ 108K in annual salary.

Plenty of people rent making that kind of money, but the rentals that appeals to such people will generally be higher end rentals. While I'm buying a condo now and earn a similar amount of money, I rented for the first 4 months or so here in Hawaii. And most of colleagues, who earn the same or more than me, almost all exclusively rent, and with no desire to buy at present.

[lkmax]

Originally Posted by Electrician4you

Doesn't matter. You can be frugal, but either can be bad. You may be frugal but that means you on a tight budget, so you can easily and most likely more often run into a problem and NOT be able to dig your way out, where a higher gross income person can.

This...even from personal experience at both lower incomes in my younger days and a higher income now.

If you make $1000 a week and budget it to the dime but have a rent payment that is $1200, you're in less of a spot to handle things than if you make $2000 a week.

I would personally never rent to anyone -- or rent a home, if I ever do so again, or have a mortgage -- where the monthly payment is more than one week's income.

[lepoisson]

You definitely need to decrease the deposit to 1mo rent. I would never rent a place with a deposit more than that. Also, remove the credit score requirement and DTI ratios.

If they meet the 3x income requirements, have verifiable employment, no felonies, and can pay 1mo deposit, they should be a good candidate.

[earslikeacat]

I think you come off as being too fearful.
Your wanting a pink snowflake when 99% of snowflakes are white.
If anyone has all the glowing financial history you ask for they are buying a house.
Plus you can find this pink snowflake and no guarantee they aren.t a POS.

[Electrician4you]

Originally Posted by thrillobyte

So...several interesting points in electrician and kara's posts I'd like to address:

The rent price cannot be too low. It is already lowest in the area. And when the rent is too low it attracts undesirable tenants. I could rent the place for $500 but what kind of bums would I attract?

It's not just that the price is low. Its low and from what I understand you have no pics up so the ad looks like a scammer ad. One of the things that it's always told about rentals is if the price us TOO low for the area it could be a scam.


Again, the info I asked for is standard stuff...just a FICO and a salary. I'm not asking for their SS, their place of work, their bank account numbers, etc. No one should be afraid of giving up their FICO when all parties are anonymous.

I ask for FICO and salary over the phone. I'm not arguing that portion.

The PM is a good company. They go out of their way to please and don't charge me for little extras. They didn't ask for any more than $200 to cover emergency plumbing repair. They have no access to my funds.

Of course they have access to your funds. The rent goes to them, they take out their cut and send you the rest. Not sure if you understand but once you get a PMC you lose some control over the property. They are your representative

Pets...eh! Couldn't care less. The ad states "NO PETS, ESPECIALLY DOGS, ESPECIALLY ESPECIALLY PIT BULLS!!!" If the applicants don't like it they can lump it and go elsewhere. The property has no yard.

Ok. That's fine. I prefer no pets,

Losing money aspect: the house has been vacant for 8 years. I was too lazy to clean it up because I had 700K in the bank from a previous sale. Now it's down to 550K and my elderly mom who is in good health might have an emergency medical and then I'll need the income so that's why I'm doing it now.

Ok either way you're losing money. Just because you got it in accounts, you have a asset that has been vacant for 8 years. That's a huge loss of revenue. If you were to rent the property for 2500 a month with no rent raises. 2500x12x8=240,000 DOLLARS. At 2000 a month it's 192,000. But hey you still got 550,000.

Fixing up this place is killing me with petty details. Now I need to install a water heater, two new toilets and get the sewer line rootered, not to mention a new roof, new flooring, new screens on the sliders, scrape/paint on the outside wood trim, new gutters and a dozen more things. Try wasting days on end on the phone just trying to find a reliable plumber who can do all the plumbing issues without asking for $500 upfront just to give me the privilege of presenting a $5,000 estimate for the work and then keeping my $500 deposit when I tell them, "Go to hell!"

I dont need to waste days on end tracing down tradesmen. I found a great plumber and I use him over and over. Have a great handyman, tile guy, drywall and paint guy.
And a property that was vacant for 8 years can get very run down and cost thousands. So maybe that 5k estimate isn't so out of realm



I just don't like self-employed. They're too unreliable. 80% of self-employed's are unemployed within a year. If you're one of the exceptions, congrats.

Again, again, I'm only asking for FICO and salary. The only people who would scream, "You're not getting my FICO and salary until I see the place" are people with a minus 500 FICO and a 20K annual salary who just want to kill time walking through places on weekends and pipe dream. There are people who make it a full time weekend activity calling and asking to view homes they cannot afford. I know because I've done it myself. I'm a hypocrite, I know.

I don't have a issue with over the phone pre screening. But to make it easier I simply ask is your FICO over 700 and your income 3x rent. I'm going to find out anyway but this way they aren't disclosing anything more than yes I'm over your requirement on FICO/income. Try that. There are other ways to get the info without getting into a pissing contest.

Again, 6K for a deposit is not unheard of in this area. The properties are 600K-1 million market value that are renting. A bad tenant can inflict a lot of damage to a property and 3K wouldn't fix torn screens with the cost of repairs nowadays

Our rentals are 550/1.2 mil and I have never asked 2x deposit. I usually go $500 over monthly. Anyone can damage your property. Even 6k may not cover damages. That's why you take people to court. Either way I wish you luck finding a tenant. I think you're going to have a tough row to hoe.

.

Bold

[Ms_Christina]

To be fair there are plenty of people with money that decide to rent and not buy. Even Beyoncé and Jay-Z rent. Granted they rent REALLY expensive houses, they still rent.

As a renter, regardless of the income, deposit, etc...that you want, I'm just not interested in renting a work in progress. I'm not interested in paying 3000 a month and have to deal with workers in the house all the time. Not when I could pay a bit more and have a place already updated. Concentrate on getting the house done.

[thrillobyte]

Originally Posted by earslikeacat

I think you come off as being too fearful.
Your wanting a pink snowflake when 99% of snowflakes are white.
If anyone has all the glowing financial history you ask for they are buying a house.
Plus you can find this pink snowflake and no guarantee they aren.t a POS.

Very true. But I disagree on the buying a house part. Lots of people have glowing credit on a 20K/yr salary. They are very responsible people, agreed. But they just don't have the 150K necessary to put down in the red hot very desirable Glassell Park/Mt Washington part of So Cal nor the 120+K salary to carry the payments.

[Kevroqs]

Originally Posted by thrillobyte

Here's part of my ad:

All applicants will have their backgrounds checked. Application fee $50; refunded to successful applicant.
The successful candidate will have
* valid SS number
* AGI of $6000+ (3x's AGI, that's the rule of thumb)
* FICO score of 700+
* verifiable address history for the last 5 years w/
clean rent payment record
* no prior criminal convictions
* no registration in the national sex offender registry
* no prior evictions
* no current/past judgements
* verfiable employment history for last 5 years
* DTI ratio of 35% or below
* security deposit of $6000

I think these are insane requirements for renting because they aren't buying the place and signing for some 30 year mortgage. Plus, they may not stay for that long. Renting is a temporary living agreement, not permanent.

[generalswife]

I believe the maximum fee for a rental application in CA is $44.51.

I'm not familiar with your rental area, but are the rent comps in the area equal? You can consider lowering your FICO requirement to a "grade B/C" and perhaps lowering the SD to a month and a half. As an incentive you could offer half-off the second month's rent.

However, if your criteria has worked in the past then go with it.

[NYCresident2014]

Originally Posted by thrillobyte

Pets...eh! Couldn't care less. The ad states "NO PETS, ESPECIALLY DOGS, ESPECIALLY ESPECIALLY PIT BULLS!!!" If the applicants don't like it they can lump it and go elsewhere. The property has no yard.

Does your ad really say that? Yikes. Here's a hint- pit bulls are pets. Dogs are pets. Therefore, "no pets" automatically screens out dogs and pit bulls. "Pit bulls" are also "dogs", but that doesn't matter since both are still pets. Your overbearing tone in the listing would certainly scare me (and many other rational people, even those without pets) away. The last thing you want your ad to do is convey "I'm very controlling and will be watching your every move".

Treat this like a business relationship- "3br single family home for rent for $3,xxx per month. Close to transit, recent renovation. No pets allowed." Why do you need to scream at people reading your listing using all caps about a simple, standard policy?

You seem to have a reason why everyone's suggestion is "wrong", which is quite odd- clearly there is something wrong with your listing, your property, or your policies if you can't get a tenant in a hot market where your rent is lower than the comps in the neighborhood.

And seriously, no pictures in the listing?! I would never call a listing that has no pictures. Total waste of time. There are too many terrible properties.