Specialist · Honolulu, HI · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
A lady who wants to pay the deposit + the first 6 months rent (the entire lease) upfront that way we aren't bothered with it every month
OR
A lady who is employed by a local strip club via 1099 (who provided an employment verification letter stating that she earns an average of $8000.00/month).
This is the real situation after tonight's showing. Thanks!
i would avoid the lady who wants to prepay rent. After having rented under those conditions, when the lease expires they don't move and don't pay. Her credit is probably horrible. And if she is able to prepay 6 months, why is she renting?
Interesting situation. Do they both meet all of your established criteria? My question to the rest of the community based on this post is: can you discriminate because of occupation? If the stripper meets your income, credit and criminal record criteria, can you legally say "no"?
I had a renter who used to pre-pay for a full year, she was a post-grad student who used her student loan money to pay my rent, then had her roommates pay her monthly rent so she had stable income. It was a nice situation. I would recommend trying to understand why tenant A wants to pre-pay. As for the stripper, every situation is different but odds are there will be baggage associated with that lifestyle.
@Vincent Priore, good point; finding out why the tenant wants to pay in advance could be very helpful. Not wanting to be bothered every month does not seem like a very good reason. Can she be "bothered" to pay the utilities, phone bill, cable, etc? I assumed she passed the screening, but if it hasn't been done, definitely check the credit.
@Vincent Priore, good point; finding out why the tenant wants to pay in advance could be very helpful. Not wanting to be bothered every month does not seem like a very good reason. Can she be "bothered" to pay the utilities, phone bill, cable, etc? I assumed she passed the screening, but if it hasn't been done, definitely check the credit.
I would have to dig into it further. I do remember her saying that she could pay monthly "if I really want her to". I pay utilities and provide cable/wifi for this one.
As for the stripper thing, I guess I like giving people the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they are doing it to take care of kids they had and I really don't know if they have multiple men in their life or biker boyfriends. This is a ~250 sq. ft. small studio for just under $1000/month.
There were several other options (couples) who would have no problem paying more (since there are two of them = more wear and more ulitities cost for me), but I beleive that the place is too small for more than one person, nothing to do with family vs. single.
Thanks guys for all the great advice. That property is now rented. Here is another one, this one is a small room and bathroom in prime time Honolulu steps from the beach. I have a lady who I am not convinced even works full time (this matters to me because I pay utilities, so it makes sense). She does however, have $100,000+ in savings, but its from a divorce settlement. That thing just leaves a sour taste in my mouth, but this isn't an ethics or political forum. What do you guys think?
There is a Hawaii law that prohibits landlords from collecting more than 2 months rent from a tenant upfront. We are not a landlord-friendly state, remember?
In Michigan it is illegal to collect more than one month's rent plus 1.5x monthly rent for security deposit, sound like Hawaii has a similar law. People that must pay this way don't know how to budget and won't be able to manage to pay once the lease expires. They say they don't want the bother of writing a check every month, but all they need to do is set up an automatic payment from their bank account and they are done for the year!
I would still run a credit and background check. You can ask how she plans to support herslf if there is no job. You can do a six-month lease and ask her to re-apply to see what her finacials are like at that point.