All Forum Posts by: Kimberly H.

@Ludmila M. I recently dealt with this very same thing.  Sometimes I sent an email cancelling the showing saying they didn't meet the criteria. Other times I cancelled the showing and didn't say anything, or just never confirmed the showing, or said we already had 3 applications, which was sorta true as I already had rejected 3 applications, and gave addresses and phone numbers of other similar properties.  I never said that we were going with another applicant because it implies you have the place rented already, and what if it's still listed for rent a two months from now?  I never said what criteria they didn't meet or where I got the info, the last thing I wanna do is tip these people off about how they use Facebook.

I actually had one guy recently who's facebook profile pic was him giving two middle fingers to the camera while chillin with his pitbull, and online records showed 3 felonies including weapons, mob action, theft, and some other misdemeanor stuff.  For about 2 months until we got it rented he became obssessed with trying to get a showing, left a note at the house saying he was trying to get a showing, called often, his girlfriend called often, at first calls and messages went to my listing number, but then he visited the house and got my cell off the business card I had in the window and started calling there too.  I basically just kept ignoring it thinking he would move on. Finally once we got it rented he stopped.

Had another guy who was a felon multiple times over, I cancelled saying he didn't meet the criteria, he wrote back and said that he read the criteria and met everything.  With trying to rent over the winter when tenant quality is worse, I caught about half applicants lying on their applications, ridiculous. 

@Account Closed

Yes, desired move-in date is important. I have had people who want to see it and want to move 4 months from now! And then they get upset when you still won't show it to them anyway. Like it's their right or something to be able to see the place.

Unbelievable how hard it is to try to rent something over the winter in Chicagoland!! Got a new property to rehab was showing-ready October 2016.  

Rejected 17 applications since then, about one a week since October 2016. Never tried to rent something in winter before. My record before was 7 rejected apps in a normal summer season.

Yes, my criteria in in the description. At the top.

Yes, I pre-screen.

There is a company website, a computerized showing scheduler, online application-nothing mom and pop looking here. Well, just the FOR RENT sign from Menards.

I did have a lower price than what I believed to be the market rate, which is set in the summer, about $50 less.

I actually had 501 incoming phone calls, texts, and email inquiries. 173 showings scheduled, 99 confirmed. !!!!!! Most showings were self-showings by lockbox, and a few buyer- agent showings since it was also listed in MLS.

Many of the applicants just flat-out lied on the application and didn't think I would find out that they were lying about their current living situation, or their evictions, or their felonies.  Some apparently had no idea their credit scores were about a hundred points lower than our criteria. Or had no idea that I might see their FB profile pic of them hanging with their pitbull giving 2 middle fingers to the camera.

I learned that often people in their 20's will say that they still live at home in the hopes you won't find their bad rental history. Kinda hard to hide when there is a landlord collection on their credit report. And previous addresses listed on there as well.

Soooooo glad to have gotten it rented!!

We don't ever paint the interior of the garage.

@Account Closed what questions do you ask with the Zillow app?

@Michael Ash in addition to calling the police, you could ask them to back it up with photos or video, everyone has a smart phone these days so that shouldn't be to hard, assuming it is really happening.

Could just be they have a large, close family that likes to visit, there is certainly no crime against that.

I think a lawyer is needed on this one. Who is the contractor, btw?

@Scott F. I would add looking at online county dockets, several times with different companies I have used for the checks, someones background comes out clean, yet I find landlord filings or crimes, even within 7 years, in online county records that didn't come up in the report. I called one company once and asked why, given that company was based in cook county and the eviction filing was Cook county, they didn't know why it didn't show up.

Also, we get the entire credit report; sometimes I will see that they owe money to a company that is a landlord.

We go in at 3 months when there is a new tenant, then every 6 after that. We don't make excuses to go in, I tell them I am there to check on the property and make sure rules are being followed. We discuss that we will be doing that at lease signing as well and it's also in the lease that we can inspect with 24 hrs notice. We also even occasionally drive by.

@Jeremy Marek I'm like 99% sure Illinois has no rules about the security deposit limit. Does Evergreen Park have their own rules? Some cities have their own rental rules like Chicago, Evanston, a couple others.

The issue is, can you find anybody with 3.5 months cash sitting around for your rentals, that's a full first months rent plus 2.5 months security deposit.  If so, are they willing to put that up to live in your rental when everyone else is only charging a month security deposit? I would love to get that for mine but people don't have it. Your first layer of defense is screening  your applicants hard. You could always make the SD vary based on the risk of the applicant as well.

@Account Closed wow that seems like a *really* long time. I would have that waiting period in whatever holding deposit agreement the applicant signs then, saying if they can't wait that long that you keep their holding deposit. Although I don't think I would personally sign that, ....30 days seems excessive, never heard of such a thing in my area. **I am not a lawyer not legal advise**