09.19.14 Current Applicant – Too Good?
My husband is ready to strangle me. First I throw most of our applicants out because they are too weak, then we get a really strong applicant and I’m still not happy!
I’m not concerned that this applicant is too good to be true; I’m concerned that they are too good to be happy at this property. We’ve been down this road before, and it was miserable. Tenant made constant demands and ended up staying less than a year.
Last week I posted about our typical and not so hot applicants for a 2 bedroom duplex. This applicant is for a 3 bedroom house, still in our low income neighborhood. It was on Craigslist for about two days; we pulled if off when we realized that the property needed more extensive TLC than we had originally hoped. Those two days generated a lot of interest, though.
This family has consistent verifiable employment, has stable verifiable address history, intends to stay long term, actually has bank accounts, offered a co-signer and/or last month’s rent, have screening reports with no criminal, collections, or eviction activity, and are non-smokers. They are currently property managers for a landlord, which could be a negative or positive. The only negatives are that they are moving from outside the area and my uneasiness that the neighborhood isn't a good fit.
What we did: On Tuesday I e-mailed them a conditional acceptance, but asked them to take a good look at the neighborhood and make sure they really want to live on that block.
How it played out: On Monday morning when they turned in the application, they wanted to pay a holding deposit. We refused. And that is the last we've heard of them. *Poof*, not answering calls, no response, just gone. Not sure if they gave up on us, gave up on the property, or just aren't as stable as they seem.
And so the search, for a solid but realistic tenant, continues...
Comments (3)
Michele,
Could I get your perspective on the no application fee? I had thought it would entice people in a middle class neighborhood to refund their application fee as a contribution to the security deposit if they qualified and signed a lease. Then, as a little time went on, I felt that if someone really wants to live somewhere, they'll pay a simple application fee of $45 for one person or $65 for two adults. I have seen on here that some people ask for a holding fee to be included with the application to find only those who are serious.
It sounds like your rentals are in lower income areas and the application fee may be a major portion of someone's income, but do you ever charge a modest amount, say $25? Also, what does it actually cost you to screen each person and I'm just assuming you do more no-cost screening such as previous addresses and employment verification as opposed to an all in one online records search. Is that how you are doing it? Just trying to see your perspective on the application fee. Thank you.
Scott Stevens, over 9 years ago
There are a few reasons we don’t collect application fees.
First, it gets us more applicants to choose from. Some landlords in our area do charge, but many don’t, and we think it gives us a leg up. Renters here prefer the independent landlords over property management companies. We don’t get a lot of completed applications, and I would be concerned about how few we would get if we charged.
Second, it simplifies our process. We have to print off more applications since lookers have no reason not to take one, but we don’t need to worry with collecting and sorting out fees.
Third, it lets us be more vague about our requirements. Our state law requires that we disclose our rental criteria, and the rules are stricter if you are taking a fee. We follow the law, I’ll add our criteria below. IF we get specific questions we will give an honest answer, but with the softer issues we explain that we use a point system and the decision is based on a combined score rather than an absolute circumstance. If we were collecting a fee, I would feel ethically obligated to go into much more detail about what applicants lose points for, and I prefer not to sway them in how to fill out the application.
We pre-screen as much as we can before spending money. Each applicant is initially scored on info we can get off the application. They are denied or move on based on the score. We’ll start calling employers and prior landlords next. If they still have enough points, then we’ll pay for screening, which is $20 per adult for credit and criminal combined. We’ll do a final scoring, make any more needed calls or conditions, and decide from there. If we are working with multiple applications at the same time, highest score gets first offer.
Hope this helps!
Our Criteria:
We do not deny housing for race, color, religion, sex, national origin, handicap, sexual orientation, marital status, or familial status.
We do deny housing to individuals:
where there is poor prior tenancy: evictions, violations, damage to rental property, poorly handled move outs, amounts are still owing to landlords or utilities.
Criminal activity is at our discretion depending on severity, number of convictions, and how long ago.
@Scott Stevens tagged
Michele Fischer, over 9 years ago
An update: The applicant called today, said their son was in the hospital, that they'd be moving in with family for awhile, apologized for the inconvenience, and said she'd reimburse us the screening fees we spent on her family (we don't have an application fee, we did not mention the wasted money, we're used to it).
Michele Fischer, over 9 years ago