Investor · Hagerstown, MD · Member since 2014 · 299 posts · 140 votes
I have a unit for rent and received a request from an interested person who says that her father will be paying for the rent for the first year since her husband just started a new job and is commission based. They will be paying for their utilities.
Has anyone ever handled a situation like this? Did it turn out well? I assume the father would have to fill out an application, and be on the lease and co-sign with them.
Investor · Philadelphia, PA · Member since 2011 · 90 posts · 21 votes
10y
I had a couple of tenants where the parents paid the rent and it worked out well on all occasions. Make sure you check everybody's credit and put the father on the lease. With more people on the hook the better the odds you will receive your rent.
Investor · Juneau, AK · Member since 2015 · 980 posts · 741 votes
10y
It deserves some research, Beth. My scenarios like this have been parents trying to get the grown kids out of their house, and the failure to launch son or daughter was not an ideal situation (based on a couple of early experiences).,partly because they did not want to leave the free rent scenario in the first place and did not fully launch into good paying and rule following tenants. However, in my scenarios the parents contacted me.. Your situation may differ and I would use all your same criteria (on all parties) and exercise extreme caution....if you are building a pool of applicants, the couple with no documented income would not likely be at the top for me (not sure what the the commission only single salary gig would be, but probably not a front runner in my pools or even meeting minimum criteria)....and you still have to even verify the third party payer would be credit worthy and even interested....
Rental Property Investor · Seattle, WA · Member since 2013 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
10y
We had a situation where the tenant was employed by her father so he was effectively paying rent. It did not end, well, the place was stuffed with partial heroine needles when we got her out, but we had put the father on the rental agreement as if he were moving in, not just co-signing, and he paid all of the cost to get the unit back to rent ready condition. Expensive lesson for him. We were fine financially and have another story to tell at parties.
Investor · Philadelphia, PA · Member since 2011 · 90 posts · 21 votes
10y
I had a couple of tenants where the parents paid the rent and it worked out well on all occasions. Make sure you check everybody's credit and put the father on the lease. With more people on the hook the better the odds you will receive your rent.
Investor · Vancouver, WA · Member since 2013 · 3k+ posts · 4k+ votes
10y
We once had a situation where the employer paid the rent. Unfortunately, we didn't make the employer a party to the rental agreement. As soon as the tenant quit his job, the funds ended. We posted Pay Rent or Quit, and the tenant left the premises. But they left behind some significant damages. So it did not end well.