What is your one automatic no on a tenant application?

Question

Posting this for the BiggerPockets Investor Brief Newsletter. Your reply might run in next Thursday's edition.

Every landlord has a list. Credit score, income multiple, eviction history, pets, smoking, how they filled out the form. Some of that list is quietly negotiable when the rest of the application is strong, and we all know it.

I want the one thing that is not negotiable. The single item where you stop reading, close the file, and move to the next applicant no matter how good everything else looks.

Give me the unfiltered truth!

Garrett

Ryan Thomson · Answer

Prior eviction on the record. Doesn't matter what the story is.

I've had applicants with solid income, decent credit, and a compelling explanation for a five-year-old eviction. I've tested that instinct a couple of times and regretted it both times.

The thing about eviction is it's a last resort for a landlord. Somebody had to stop paying rent, refuse to leave, AND force a court filing before that showed up on a background check. That's a documented pattern, not a rough patch.

I house hacked my way to five properties starting on a $35k social worker salary. Every one of them has tenants covering the mortgage. A bad tenant in a house hack doesn't just cost you rent, it costs you the roof over your head. That math made me very clear on what I'm not willing to gamble on.

Income I'll flex on if the savings account is there. Credit I'll contextualize if everything else is clean. Prior eviction judgment? File closed.

Drew Sygit · Answer

Eviction in the last 2 years

Diana Khan · Answer

@Garrett Brown, for me, the biggest automatic no is when I find out an applicant was intentionally dishonest about something important on the application. I’ve worked with landlords long enough to know that a lower credit score or an old financial problem can sometimes have a reasonable explanation. But if someone gives false information about income, rental history, who will be living in the property, or something else that can be verified, that is much harder for me to overlook.

I also think landlords need written screening standards and should apply them the same way to every applicant. I’ve seen problems start when someone makes exceptions based on instinct instead of following a clear process. Whatever the criteria are, they should be lawful, documented, and consistent. For me, accurate information is what allows the landlord to make a fair decision in the first place.

Brian Saucier · Answer

lots of things Garrett I’d like you to go ahead and put me as receipt so I can start texting you about short term rentals.

CO Living is something that I am seriously interested at you can get back to me ASAP that would be great

Jules Aton · Answer

Hx of eviction, foreclosure or bad credit.

Gregory L Danyow · Answer

Sorry... another noob here... When the background check comes back with a prior eviction on record... what is it actually pinging off of? Is it the court record of a successfully granted eviction? Or is it pinging off just a landlord's filing independent of the final judgement?

Richard F. · Answer

The income bar.  I always confirm total household income first, if they don't meet that, and do not have substantial separate savings, I don't spend the money for credit reports. For this market I used 2.5 X monthly rent, with a 5% allowance IF all other aspects of background were solid.

What is your one automatic no on a tenant application?

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