So confused on how to proceed on this tenants

So confused on how to proceed on this tenants

Rental Property Investor · Houston, TX · Member since 2019 · 141 posts · 48 votes

So confused on how to proceed .Here is a nutshell.I have a ppty ready for rent.Been on market for 20+ days .Getting tons of showing request but most if not all donot pass my initial screening terms which are

1. Credit 680+

2. Income 3x rent

3. No evictions

4 .No aggressive breed pets

Finally a couple passed the screening .They came saw the house n fell in love.But once applications came in red flags started popping up

One candidate is perfect but other is not .Here are there screening results

1st candidate

790+ credit

Makes 4x rent

Been on current job for 18 yrs

No pets

No evictions

Credit report has nothing serious

2nd candidate

620 credit

Makes 1.8X rent

No pets

Couple of late payments on credit report and those are in past 3 yrs

Been on current job for 3 yrs

4 collections on credit report

No evictions.

Interesting things to note about applicant 1&2

Both are not married in sense they claim single status on application

Both work at same place under one boss .

Both are living in separate apartments .Coming to live together under 1 roof in my rental.

The 2nd candidates current landlord (apartment)says she owes 800$ in cleaning fee as she left 7 bags of trash and dirty carpets and messed up cabinets, she paid rent on time but didnot put a security deposit so they cannot collect the cleaning fee.

Will you rent to these applicants .If so what precautions you will take? especially when drafting lease and taking security deposit.

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Member since 2019 · 15 posts · 15 votes
4y

Make sure the lease says that all signors are "jointly and severally liable" for the terms of the lease. If either one leaves the other with monies owed to the landlord, you can sue each of them with legal good standing without concern for whatever agreement they had between them.

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  • Rental Property Investor · Lake Hallie, WI · Member since 2015 · 292 posts · 144 votes
    4y

    680 is to high at least for my properties. Perhaps yours is higher class than mine. 

    To me the one having a high one trumps the low one. I however might ask for some extra deposit because of the feedback from the former landlord. 

    Side note if I have a couple break up I #1 don't let the one leaving off the lease. Then they are still legally responsible and won't try to sabotage the other's life and risk being party to an eviction hearing with them down the road. #2 I don't give them any deposit back. Since the other would have to replace it I tell them to ask them. I'm not the middle man then. 

  • Jeyo PunnakottilPro Member
    OP
    Rental Property Investor · Houston, TX · Member since 2019 · 141 posts · 48 votes
    4y

    @Chad McMahan Thanks for the advice.I had a face to face conversation with the guy .Told him all my concerns about the second applicant ,especially trashing up her last apartment and owning 850$ cleaning fee.I offered him the home @2X security deposit and lease will be in his name only and 1month rent upfront .He agreed .Today got a call from him saying they are dropping the application as she says she donot want to take all the blame .

  • Residential Real Estate Broker · Sedona, AZ · Member since 2017 · 754 posts · 504 votes
    4y
    Quote from @Jeyo Punnakottil:

    @Chad McMahan Thanks for the advice.I had a face to face conversation with the guy .Told him all my concerns about the second applicant ,especially trashing up her last apartment and owning 850$ cleaning fee.I offered him the home @2X security deposit and lease will be in his name only and 1month rent upfront .He agreed .Today got a call from him saying they are dropping the application as she says she donot want to take all the blame .


    Jejo, Got it.

    Well, there will be others.

    Next time do NOT exclude someone from the lease agreement. The more people on the lease, the better. Having just the best person on the lease is actually worse then having the best + the worst person on the lease. Everyone on the lease is liable.

    Good luck!

  • Scott JohnsonBusiness Member
    Specialist · Greenville, NC · Member since 2019 · 673 posts · 408 votes
    4y

    No confusion on my end. You had me at 790 Credit and 4x the rent with no credit dings or pets.

    One renter with no known issues and another without the money and a fair amount of issues... I'll let you do the math :P

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