Richmond, VA · Member since 2016 · 25 posts · 10 votes
Hey all I was wondering if any of you have had this happen before. It seems kind of sketchy for the tenant to want to pay full years rent. What should I look out for, how can I protect myself for anything bad that can happen? Any and all advice will be appreciated!
If you take a full years rent, then imagine how tough it will be to evict when they bring in 20 people in like a turnstile and start slanging out of your unit.
The easiest reason a court will allow eviction is “non-payment”.
If they have made all payments for a year up front, that will be tough to boot em. Something else is up.
I passed on a similar tenant app from a realtor who wanted to pay 6 months up front, claimed to just have bad credit but I was not impressed with the sob story.
Hey all I was wondering if any of you have had this happen before. It seems kind of sketchy for the tenant to want to pay full years rent. What should I look out for, how can I protect myself for anything bad that can happen? Any and all advice will be appreciated!
Hi,
I was moving back from Tennessee to Washington/Seattle area. I was looking online for a few months and overtime I found a house I liked it would always be taken before I could secure the deal. So, I flew up here spent a week looking and found the perfect house compared to the others I'd seem. I offered to pay a year ahead with a discount, They excepted and I have been there for 8 years now. Of course that was before starting to do real estate. lol Look them up, do a background check before deciding. Nothing is private anymore. If you need help with that let me know.
If they pass income and background check it shouldn't be an issue. This is more common than you'd think. Some people like getting the monthly rent payments out of the way when the opportunity arises financially.
I work in Law Enforcement and have a few Rental Homes as well... what I’m hearing here, from my perspectives of course, is that you have a drug dealer trying to rent from you. Unless you have some sought after, high profile Home for rent? If not, you have a drug dealer or someone who gets their money illegally. I’ve had similar experiences with potential renters and I run them through the systems I have access to and it never looks good. Stay away, don’t let the quick payoff distract you from the reality of what’s probably going on.
yes can be normal. ive heard tenants offering a fulls year worth of rent but they usually want an extra month free..if you get full payment imagine getting 11k in lump sum on 1000 month rent instead of 12k for full year spread over 12 months.... its all negotiations. Some LL have cash flow issues you never know its all business...id say is rare
You should definitely inquire into the tenant's rationale for paying the full year's worth of rent off at one time. I'll disagree with anyone claiming that prepayment indicates poor money management skills because there can be a variety of alternative reasons to pay off all at once. I pay all of my rent off at once for peace of mind, where I don't have to worry about monthly deductions from my accounts. This way, I can build up cash in my accounts and maintain a nice safety blanket for that term and assess my financial positions for the upcoming year. I also view it as beneficial to the landlord because it gives them all the cash up front so they are free to use it for whatever purpose they want - if they have an investment contingent on receiving the rent money I provide, they no longer have to wait for it (aka - they have more cash on hand and more bargaining power). I call that a win-win. That being said, still make sure to do your due diligence and research a tenant.
I think the general consensus... do what works for you, always do your due diligence and make an informed decision. To the folks who are arguing they think this means tenants are irresponsible with their money... I know folks rent for many reasons, but if all of your tenants were being as responsible as possible with their money, would they be renting from you instead of buying their own home/place to live, gaining equity in their place of residence, etc??
As to posted dated cks : if a posted dated ck is deposited early and the funds are not there, who is responsible for bouneed check fees and all related costs due to a domino effect?
"it gives them all the cash up front so they are free to use it for whatever purpose they want"
The money remains the property of the tenant, it must be placed in a separate account and can not be touched by the landlord. .It s illegal for the landlord to use the money for any other purpose than paying the tenants rent each month. The tenant also has the legal right to demand back any money remaining in the account at any time.
There is no advantage to the landlord to take rent payment in advance and to provide a discount is simply giving money away.
I would certainly accept it under the right circumstances. The potential residents should still meet and or exceed the same requirements as those who cannot offer the year rent up front.
In Bridgeport, CT we sometimes come across residents who want to offer a few months rent in advance in exchange for not meeting some other application requirement.
We may make that allowance for something like a slightly lower credit score than required, or pet which wasn’t allowed after checking with owner.
There are some non negotiables such as criminal backgrounds and evictions on record which we don’t accept.
I had a tenant who used to pay 4 to 6 months rent as a lump sum. I never had any issues. For me it was a smaller property (duplex) so getting a bigger chunk up front allowed me to make certain purchases without having to use a line of credit as the cash flow on the unit wasn't very high.