Developer · Atlanta, GA · Member since 2014 · 475 posts · 424 votes
5y
@Cameron Riley
Hey Cameron-
Just because the property is in the hood doesn’t mean you can’t find decent tenants. I suggest looking at the Section- 8 tenant requirements and building your criteria from there.
Honestly- I would try to market the properties specifically for Sec-8 tenants. Many Sec- 8 tenants value their voucher and are good tenants for fear of losing the benefits and do not mind living in the hood.
Rental Property Investor · Seattle, WA · Member since 2013 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
5y
We use a scoring system.
Stated criteria, pretty broad since we pay the screening fees:
Our Criteria:
We do not deny housing for race, color, religion, sex, national origin, handicap, sexual orientation, marital status, or familial status.
We do deny housing to individuals:
when the application is not complete or accurate
where there is not sufficient income/resources to pay rent and live
where there is poor prior tenancy: evictions, violations, damage to rental property, poorly handled move outs, amounts are still owing to landlords or utilities.
Criminal activity is at our discretion depending on severity, number of convictions, and how long ago.
We look for Income in sweet spot: rent 28%-31% of income, applicants who don't move every year (per credit report), applicants with bank accounts, non smokers, a verifiable stable source of income, landlord references, etc. None of these are individually a deal breaker, but the scoring system gives an overall assessment and the highest scoring applicant gets an offer to rent. Too low and it stays empty.
Stated criteria, pretty broad since we pay the screening fees:
Our Criteria:
We do not deny housing for race, color, religion, sex, national origin, handicap, sexual orientation, marital status, or familial status.
We do deny housing to individuals:
when the application is not complete or accurate
where there is not sufficient income/resources to pay rent and live
where there is poor prior tenancy: evictions, violations, damage to rental property, poorly handled move outs, amounts are still owing to landlords or utilities.
Criminal activity is at our discretion depending on severity, number of convictions, and how long ago.
We look for Income in sweet spot: rent 28%-31% of income, applicants who don't move every year (per credit report), applicants with bank accounts, non smokers, a verifiable stable source of income, landlord references, etc. None of these are individually a deal breaker, but the scoring system gives an overall assessment and the highest scoring applicant gets an offer to rent. Too low and it stays empty.
Do they know this score system? If I go to look at a unit, what information would you tell me when I ask about your criteria for renting the unit?
Rental Property Investor · Seattle, WA · Member since 2013 · 2k+ posts · 1k+ votes
5y
We do not share our scoring sheets, but if they ask we share that we have a scoring system. They usually ask about a specific issue they struggle with, we usually tell them how we view that issue and share that it probably depends on other things. We have found that a lot of applicants think they have been evicted when really they have had a contract not renewed, so we ask questions. Applicants want to know if it is worth their time to fill out the paperwork and whether they will lose the application fees. We pay the application fees to remove that barrier and to allow us to be less specific. We want a larger applicant pool and it does not add up to very much money in a year. What I posted above is what what we formally communicate on the application. What is a complete deal breaker for you? Under age 18? Evicted before? Rent is 60% of income? Pets? Disqualifiers should be communicated, but most of it is a gray area. You need to be able to tell whether an application fits your qualifications or not - what is it and how do you translate that to applicant communication?