Rental Property Investor · Delray Beach, FL · Member since 2014 · 224 posts · 169 votes
A couple applied to rent one of my houses (note: this is through an independent leasing services and I have not met or spoken to the applicants myself). They sent a long intro letter saying the boyfriend was convicted of a felony in 2014 for possession of a firearm. Their story was along the lines of: "He wielded a firearm to defend his elderly relative from an abusive uncle but never actually used it."
I'm conflicted because it was non-violent (shades of gray at worst), 5 years ago already, and they're assuring me his record is clean since (I have not run their background check yet since I wasn't going to make them pay for that unless I thought I'd actually rent to them). However, it feels like a lot of work to vette them and I'm probably going to require a larger deposit regardless.
Where do you stand on renting to a felon like this? Is it worth vetting further (pulling court records and/or police reports?) or hard no?
I mostly manage class C rentals, and I LOVE a subgroup of felons who are "aged-out" of the delinquent nonsense and have proven themselves as reformed. IE they have a solid job and appreciate it, connections to family and a support system, and have clearly separated themselves from that previous life. And sometimes it takes 10 years locked up to reach that point.
Why do I like this? Because since they are felons, they have a very hard time finding housing, which means my turnover/vacancy is kept to a minimum.
Also to note, I don't care about the background story. The judge/jury heard that and found it not-convincing. If they are feeding you an excuse story they likely haven't accepted responsibility for their actions and likelihood for re-occurrence of bad decision making is high. My solid felon-applicants state up-front their history (I'm not just discovering it through background checks) with no excuses but rather try to bolster their applications with all of the positives of their current situation.
IF I WERE YOU I WOULD BRUSH UP ON FAIR HOUSING LAWS. IF A TENANT MEETS YOUR STANDARD CRITERIA AND IS WITHIN LAWS RULES AND REGULATIONS I WOULD RENT TO THAT TENANT.