Pricing Rental Unit and Tenant Screening

[Chou D.]

Looking for advice: We just listed a SFH in the Rocklin / Roseville are for rent. Although we're getting quite a bit of interest on Zillow, the applicants seem to be barely meeting the income and credit requirements. The listing has been up for 2 weeks, and I'm having a conversation with myself if I need to something differently or stay the course.

Should I lower the rent, or wait for more applicants? 

[Mike Malyy]

Are you advertising anywhere besides Zillow? I found that I get much better success with FB marketplace, although a lot more tire kickers and flakes as well.

I would not compromise on tenant screening under any circumstances as it would be more expensive getting rid of a bad tenant. But in terms of rent, my philosophy is I would rather lower rent by $50-$100 than have a month of vacancy, which I assume in Roseville/Rocklin you probably lost more than $100/mo for a year in 2 weeks. Another option could be lowering rent a bit but putting an additional responsibility on the tenant, such as lawn maintenance or a bill that you would normally cover.

Good luck!