Need advice screening new tenant

[Melody Dodderer]

I'm in the process of turning over one of my units and, every landlord's nightmare, it's midwinter and tenants are scarce. I have an applicant and I was hoping for some feedback on whether or not I should pursue getting this person into the unit. She emailed me with a bit of a sob story about how no one would rent to her because she has a five year old drug possession charge on her record, but she has been clean ever since. She is on government assistance full time and is expecting a baby. She says she is willing to pay six months rent in advance and can have her mother cosign if there is any financial difficulty. Six months up front and clean for five years sounds nice, but I'm worried about the drug charge and potential relapses, and also the lack of employment (I'm not familiar enough with government assistance programs to know how steady that is). Any feedback would be great!

[Joe P.]

See if she would have any recommendations from previous landlords, even recent ones? I think that would be pretty telling. You need to be careful of how much you inquire into the charges, or any part of this woman's life. Discriminatory factors could come into play.

I agree with what others are saying about the sob story, but this woman is being incredibly upfront with you. The mother cosigning is an interesting addendum.

I would also not consider the rent pre-payment; I believe I've heard some horror stories on BP about prepayment. The general consensus, if I recall correctly, is to respond with "great! then you'll have no problem putting that money aside to pay the rent when it is due each month." The prepayment just gets a landlord off of a tenants back, and frankly, I would not want that. I would push for frequent house visits and be extra diligent.

Good luck to you!