BiggerPockets

I had a prospective tenant call me the other day, who seemed very excited about a house I have for rent. In the process of telling me she was interested she told me she was taking her current land lord to court because he only gave her 45 days notice about terminating her month to month lease. (30 days required in my state). She also said the landlord told her "you obviously aren't happy here, so let's end your lease at the end of the year."

So, I don't know the landlord's side of the story, but it sure looks like she has been complaining enough that he got sick of her, and while not knowing the laws she's tying him up in a court case anyhow. And has known for 30 days her lease was ending, but hasn't started looking for a new apartment.

What are some of your stories about potential tenants telling you something that seems like common sense not to say, but you were grateful they said so you don't rent to them?

Jacob, we were doing a test ad for a single wide mobile home in Indiana, and had some lady who her and her boyfriend desperately needed our help. They had 7 dogs (they would be willing to get ride of 1, or maybe 2) and were being evicted because they couldn't always make the huge payment on time, and their landlord had enough "excuses" every month. I began with running a few numbers with her and showing her what she would have to come up with for a down payment, then a monthly payment (carrying the note/seller financing). She insisted we should not give up on her, and called us a million times a day trying to work a deal. They were desperate and we were her only help. When I finally had enough and told her it would not work, and that the mobile had sold, she insisted we find another one. She eventually started calling from another number, and when I called her by her name, she insisted that she was the sister and gave me another story. This lady had numerous sisters and for some reason, they called from the 2 numbers, and they all sounded the same! Some of the people you come across you just have to feel sorry for, but at the same time, let them be someone else's problem!

Had a group of Spanish speaking lookers; they said they liked the place and wanted the application. I said fine, how many adults will be living there; I gave them enough paperwork for the number of people they said, and told them that ALL adults must fill out the application. Before they leave, they go to the kitchen and start arguing in Spanish (I'm not fluent in Spanish, so I was at a disadvantage there). As near as I could tell, they were arguing over who was going to put their name on the application. I asked them to leave, and said that it doesn't seem to be a good match since they were having some difficulties.

The next week, I have a showing and the same bunch shows up; they used a different phone number when they called to see the place from the number they used previously. I said that they already saw the place, and that I wasn't going to be considering them. They said they had the application filled out (but missing info at that) and brought pay stubs - but not enough for all of the adults that were supposed to be occupants, and the application did not have all names on it either. I said that their application was not complete and I could not accept it.

The next week, one of the guys from that bunch and I guess his wife were driving past the house while I was outside, and stopped. Asked me if I remembered him, because he STILL wanted the house. I told him I'm not interested and to keep moving.

And he tried something again later that week that I can't bring up in the forums. But they just didn't seem to understand that simple word: NO. And they couldn't follow simple directions, and my not being a Spanish speaker wasn't going to allow use of their first language.

How weird. I wonder if she just didn't know what that meant and was trying to ask something else, or if she really wanted to know how much equity ($$$) you had in the house in case something went wrong and she decided to sue you.

I don't think that was the case here. She had an attitude problem as soon as she walked in. I think she was using words like equity to try and appear smart. Also, she didn't ask "How much equity do you have" it was more like "What's the equity in this house". Either way, she was an idiot and I was glad when she left.

I usually look at how the people talk to me in the first two minutes and then ask myself, "Do I want to deal with these people for the next two years?"

I showed a unit to a woman once who was thrilled with the apartment. I asked her where she worked. She said she didn't. I asked what kind of income she had. She said she didn't. No state assistance, no nothing. Just $0. I asked her how she thought she'd pay rent - she said "Can I just make payments on it?"

I'm still confused on that one. Needless to say - since that day, I ask the income question on the phone before showing any units.

The best part about these is you do not have to send them any written rejection ...

Another one:

A husband and wife and their two kids came to see the place. The man was acting a little edgy and kept telling me "I was a soldier in the US Army" (currently he was on disability). I told them I would need to do a credit check and the wife told me I could just do one on him, I didn't need to do one on her. The man also wanted to do an arrangement where I would meet him at random places around Orlando each month to pick up the rent (instead of them mailing it). They also wanted me not to take a holding deposit because they didn't have enough money at that time.

I could barely hear them while we were trying to have a conversation because their two kids were running around the house screaming the entire time. When they left I found that the kids had damaged the miniblinds in one room.

The man called back the next day and I told him I didn't think it was going to work out...

I have had a number of sub-par lookers that were living within large complexes. The property managers there can be just as careless as anybody; sometimes they don't care because the business model they use assumes certain vacancy and eviction numbers anyway, with attorneys on retainer to do evictions. One applicant years ago had been evicted for the first time from a large complex, and then found a new residence with a different large complex. When I rejected him for that prior eviction that had been confirmed in writing from that first complex, he answered with the same sort of disbelief that you expressed: "Why would the place I'm in take me if I had been evicted?"

I have seen sex-offenders in bigger complexes, other felony convictions (mostly substance related), as well as evictions. So don't make assumptions in the future - check out all applicants diligently as you did with the one just mentioned.

The guy that does carpet cleaning for me has a large apartment complex (300+ units) that he does all of the carpet cleaning for. He told me that it was taken over by a large company that buys apartments all over the country. Their goal is high occupancy numbers and they lowered their standards to eliminate vacancies. The carpet guy is now super busy there due to all of the turnover and evictions. The entire complex has gone from a halfway decent place with many vacancies to a bleephole with less vacancies, but high turnover and lower quality tenants. The onsite management is pressured by their bosses to have low vacancy numbers even though it has equated to less revenue. They will pretty much rent to anyone to meet their occupancy quota.