Tenant Screening for Tenants with Co-Signer

[Kevin McGinnis]

I am close to the finish line of my first real estate deal. I purchased a HUD home, and spent about $30K fixing it up. It's finally ready to rent, and I put ads on Zillow, Trulia and Craigslist. Lots of response in the first 5 days-probably a dozen inquiries. Today, 3 female students (college town) looked at it with their moms, loved it, and said "we'll take it". First, I asked them to fill out an application, and will require each of the tenants to pay a $35 application fee, to cover background, criminal and credit checks. Each girl said no problem for their parents to co-sign, since they have not established credit yet. Here's my question: what type of background and credit checks do I run, and on who?

I'm thinking to do a background and criminal check on each student (to look for evictions or felonies) and a credit check on the parents, who will be guaranteeing the payment.  Also, each of the girls works while going to school.

Any ideas or suggestions.  I did not think I should run 6 complete background checks (one on each tenant & one on each parent), as it seems overboard.  Am I going about this the right way?  Rent is $1,200/month, and I've asked for 1st month, last month, and $600 security deposit.

[Olivia Tallchief]

I agree with Nancy. I am a Resident Manager for an apartment complex and we require that every person go through the same process. And co-signer qualifications are different than the renters. A lease holder may be required to make 3x's the rent where a co-signer is required to make 5x's. Reason is because by co-signing for someone they are saying that in the case the lease holder cannot pay the rent they will cover it, along with any of their own expenses.  I think that to cover all your bases, screening everyone the same is your best bet. Good Luck!