Do you even work/deal with people that has a good income but not so great credit scores because of job loss or medical debts? If yes, what do you request or require? Trying to get a general idea of what is fair or a down right rip off.
Here’s a scenario.
Husband and wife makes the income requirement for 3x the rent
Husband has a debt load that is currently 50% (it was 65% last year) because wife was not working for several years. Husband makes up 2/3 of the income for the rent requirement. Job stable for 5 years now
Wife has no debt since discharged from bankruptcy due to $100k medical debt without health insurance (job loss at the time). Wife just starting working again a month ago and makes up 1/3 of the income for the rent requirement
Savings is $10k
A property management company says no but will “approve” if we do 6 months rent up front and double security deposit. That’s a lot of money. His reasoning is that 2 adults are applying for a rental and a security deposit (safety net for him) *his words* for each adult. Legal? i don’t know.
I’d never want to get 6 months in advance because if you need to get them out, you can’t. If they pay 6 months and you need them to move for any reason, tough. Security is for damage not rent, 2 times security makes zero sense.
Some states have a maximum allowable security deposit.
My current renters were credit challenged but had low debt. I worked with them and they've been good tenants *knock on wood*.
I'd be wary of tenants with a high debt load. And ones that had declared bankruptcy. People will tend to pay rent "last" since they can legally skate along for 2 months+ before you can evict them.
Much like dating, finding good renters is tough, but don't "settle". Wait for ones you're comfortabe with. Its a lot easier to reject questionable prospective tenants than it is to evict them once they remove all doubt and become bad ones.
Do they have kids or seem like they might be planning for some? That could add a potential stressor to the situation that could tip the scales the wrong way. Just be careful- there's a lot of things/ reasons why you CAN NOT reject prospective tenants. Don't give them any reason to question your motives.
Steve_Jones said:
I’d never want to get 6 months in advance because if you need to get them out, you can’t. If they pay 6 months and you need them to move for any reason, tough. Security is for damage not rent, 2 times security makes zero sense.
If a tenant skips out owing you rent, though, a LL can keep the security to cover the missing rent. However, in most leases I've seen, the language states that the SD is explicitly not to be considered to be "rent" from the perspective of the tenant. I.E., they can't tell you they're leaving and then not pay the LL rent so as to 'run down' the security.
