Where is the cut off?

[Aaron Schwab]

I have a potential tenant that is interested in renting one of my properties but her husband has a felony on his record from two years ago. He is a disabled Vet and it was a PTSD incident. Is that an automatic no for you or do you let it pass?

[Randall Alan]

We stack rank our clients based on their entire renter profile... income, work, relationship stability (married versus cohabiting; young couple versus older couple, etc).  Ask yourself which tenant seems like it would give you the most stable, longest term rental.   

  A felony wouldn't NECESSARILY knock someone out of contention, but we would look at the bigger picture.  On income we use 3x rent as a measure.  Are there multiple incomes in the house?   How long have they been at their job?   Is the one with the felony the primary income provider? If they "went away" would the rental continue, or crash out?  

What was the nature of the felony... was it violent?  Was it drugs? Theft?  Domestic Abuse? DUI?   None are a good thing, but some are worse than others from a rental perspective as you will need to interact with these people.  I wouldn't want someone who was violent as a tenant as I don't want them to be violent with ME!  Drugs - was it "just" marijuana, or was it more hard core?  Some areas marijuana use is legal, some areas people just look the other way.  You have to decide on how you feel about that.   A DUI isn't as bad a drugs or violence to me and I could see it as a one time problem, for instance - barring a history of such.  Again, none are good... but their are differences between them in my book.  If there is a felony, I would pay particular attention to whether there is a history there that would tend to make you think that it is a continuing pattern... related misdemeanors, common interactions with the police, etc.   You can look on your county clerk's website usually and see someone's entire background in that county.  Look up other counties if they have crossed county lines in their rental history.

We typically raise the requirements for our tenants when their history presents problems. Meaning, instead of just first month and security deposit, we ask for last month's rent as well... so it gives us extra security in the event they are a problem.  I also like to talk with them about it.  You can often get a feel from their demeanor whether it seems like it is in the past or not.  You can just say, "Looking at your history I see there was a felony conviction... can you give me some background on that?"  Two years wasn't that long ago... but often you can see someone turn a new leaf... they have a new job, income, got married, sort of stabilized their life.  Hope some of this might help.

Randy