I recently was given notice by a tenant. November is not a good time to find new tenants in Reno. But when I posted my house, I got 5 applicants in 1 hour, and they keep pouring in. The stories are either their house is being sold or they need a bigger place because the 3 adults and 5 kids plus 2 emotional support pitbulls do not fit in the current accommodation.  They are reluctant to get veryfied- cash basis only. 2 women tried the tearfull approach. I am puzzled.  Do you experience similar tenants, or is this the reaction to the exodus from the Bay Area making housing scarse? The recent expiration of the Nevada eviction moratorium might play also a roll.

Hello Betty, in my experience, these types of prospects typically come with finance problems and or criminal problems. Since you are seeing a lot of prospective tenants submit inquiries this early on - I would urge them to submit applications. If they cannot, tell them that you cannot proceed at this time. 

With the expiration of a moratorium, I would also exercise caution here. 

I can't really speak to the potentiality of these situations being related to the Bay area situation, but it seems unlikely to me.  

I have rentals in Cleveland which is also a cold weather environment so we face the same thing in the winter time. The bottom of the barrell cash tenants. 

Don't fall for it,....it is literally better to have the property vacant than to have the 3 adults and 5 kids plus 2 emotional support pitbulls...........those tenants fail to mention they will also have an inlaw that moves in and that inlaw also happens to have an emtional support Mastiff and their own two kids.

What I did is I had my PM start accepting carefully screened Section 8 Tenants.......and that helped me get a good quality, long term guaranteed renter in the property. 

Originally posted by @Betty Klein :

I recently was given notice by a tenant. November is not a good time to find new tenants in Reno. But when I posted my house, I got 5 applicants in 1 hour, and they keep pouring in. The stories are either their house is being sold or they need a bigger place because the 3 adults and 5 kids plus 2 emotional support pitbulls do not fit in the current accommodation.  They are reluctant to get veryfied- cash basis only. 2 women tried the tearfull approach. I am puzzled.  Do you experience similar tenants, or is this the reaction to the exodus from the Bay Area making housing scarse? The recent expiration of the Nevada eviction moratorium might play also a roll.

 Na that type of crap happens everywhere bad decisions are made. See it every day. Savages man. Friggin savages.

Tell them they need to submit an application and be firm.  People will tell you all sorts of stories, don't believe any of them.  Look at the facts and stick to your regular screening criteria.  The last vacancy I had, there were more 'special' people than normal from those looking at the rental as if they were going to buy it to those who were rude and the sob stories.  With evictions having just been lifted (we evicted the tenant who was there), we would have rather had it sit empty for a bit than fill it with what would likely be a problem tenant.

Thanks for the feedback. I found some of the applicants were playing games by applying under multiple names it looked like a room mate situation. I do not rent to these either. With UNR and colleges being all virtual they can live anywhere. Today I had some more serious applicants. It probably takes more time to reach the right kind of tenants.

Hi @Betty Klein ,

What part of town are you looking to fill a vacancy in and how are you marketing it? I usually push mine through facebook marketplace which generates a lot of low quality leads - but occasionally a good one - and Zillow rental manager (which you can syndicate through Cozy/Apartments.com) which also generates a ton of leads so you have to sift.

It takes a lot of time but I always do a prequalification call. If they can't even respond to set-up a time to do a call, they don't get an appointment to see it. Similarly, I advertise maximum occupancy for the building and that we are not Section 8 approved so that if someone does inquire with more people than I am willing to rent to or section 8, there are no complaints of fair housing violation based on "family status" because I'm marketing to everybody that the 3 bed house has a 3 person max and me saying no to them has nothing to do with them having a bunch of kids, etc.

We bought a quadplex for our near downtown Reno and will start our remodel on it soon before we release it so I'll be back in your shoes soon enough! Please reach out if I can help out in anyway.

I am renting out a 4/2 in Double Diamond Ranch. It normally attracts great tenants. May be I did  not ask enough for rent?

I only communicate initially by email. In my first email I list the financial qualifications and let them know I do background checks. 80-90% never respond to this email which is probably a good thing. 

@Betty Klein I've actually had a tenant offer notice recently as well (for Dec.1). I've listed the available unit and I'm finding there are a lot of people that want some interesting exceptions to my financial requirements. I typically do the same as @David Jay , correspond via email and be up front about the qualifications for tenants. Most won't respond and those that do are able to submit an application that will be background checked before they move in. Most of the squirrely stuff works itself out this way. I think it's a good sign that you've gotten so much interest. Now it's probably just a numbers game to find the right, qualified tenant. Good luck in your search. 

Love that you call it 'squirrel' stuff. There are a lot of squirrels in my back yard, that are driving me an my dog crazy. As to the other kind, I found out a couple of things: I asked too little rent! A real surprise since I am $200 above the previous price. UNR just changed to distant learning only. And the stay on evictions in Nevada just expired.

@Betty Klein . Don’t fall for the crocodile tears. Stick to your guns and set criteria.

I was told facebook marketplace is now the spot to post rentals. But I do not get a lot of serious leads. And why do I get a lot of questions if I am the owner or the PM?

Originally posted by @Betty Klein :

I was told facebook marketplace is now the spot to post rentals. But I do not get a lot of serious leads. And why do I get a lot of questions if I am the owner or the PM?

 That's great that you can up the rent more than you thought!  FB marketplace is like Craigslist for me -- same loonies that all don't smoke but reek and have an ashtray on their dashboard.  They all want to pay cash and can never manage to return an application!

I post on Zillow group (I haven't since they started charging), and find that it gets the best responses.  Then I schedule ALL the showings for an open house.  That way I don't want to murder the no-shows.  Usually 25% actually show, then 25% actually give the application back.  That's how they self-select out!

As for wanting to know if you are the owner or the PM, they are asking to see how much BS they can give you.

Good Luck!

Here's a speech I like to use: "You guys seem really nice and I'd love to rent to you. But with landlord/tenant laws the way they are, I have no choice but to use the same screening process for everyone. Let me know if you want to apply..."

Usually they say they'll "call back later" and they go away. But yeah, we get all the "I'm a good renter but my old roommate screwed me", "I have three emotional support Rotties..." in Southern Illinois. It's everywhere. You'd rather pass on a good tenant than take a bad one!

I must agree with you Dan. So many that will not even read the posted facts. Just when I thought I had seen enough this guy applies: 6 people want to lived in a 4 bedroom house. They are all his foster kids, underage, and he is not living with them?! I am not sure this is even legal. I should report him to CPS.

The funniest story I ever heard was a family of small people rented a house out, paid rent on time every month for 3 years then they suddenly stopped paying one month and the owner went to check it out... why this guy didn't do an interior inspection yearly, I'm not sure...

They had divided his vaulted ceiling house into two floors and built another floor for themselves and another family lived underneath them.  One of the family patrons lost his job so they couldn't pay.

They checked out on the application side of things when they started.  

Just FYI, you never know what you're going to get.  In the end, you wanna do damage control or just collect rent?  If collect rent?  Set a strict criteria, know your market, don't fall for any tears because you might be the one crying in the end wishing you didn't go for it.  I'm sorry those people don't have a place to go, there's a 2 acre tent city in Charlotte, NC due to lack of affordable housing.  We can only build as fast as we can and volunteer our time with Habitat for Humanity if it comes down to it, but don't take on a personal crusade, it never really ends well.