All Forum Posts by: Ray Harrell

Share the down sides of Section 8 with as much enthusiasm and detail.

@Gregory H., if someone meets the minimum requirements, then you should be renting the property to them. What reason would you have for denying an otherwise qualified applicant? Sounds like trouble to me.

If you have only had one applicant, maybe you should lower your price or criteria?

@Marc Izquierdo, which is why you provide your criteria up front. People usually know if they don't meet the criteria. But if you don't share your criteria, they have every right to be suspicious...UNLESS, you just declined them based on gut feeling and have no support to show why you denied them. If that's the case, there could be problems if you use "criteria" as a reason.

@John Underwood, the court will want to know if the applicant was aware of the criteria, and if not, they may want to know why you didn't share your "established" criteria with the applicant before they applied. Also seems suspicious because your "criteria" could be arbitrary based on each situation.

Always best to send a brief letter, not saying you are declined or denied, but that we have rented the unit to the best qualified applicant. If you want to refund their application fee that's on you. But, if you didn't share your criteria, would they have applied if you HAD shared your criteria up front? Maybe they feel they wasted their time and application fee not knowing what your criteria were.

@John Hickey, I do the  same. However, I'm not going to put the best heating system in a building where don't appreciate it. I'm going to put the most cost effective. Do you think a drug dealer really cares about whether the heat is baseboard or forced air? They just want HEAT! Chances are, they've NEVER lived in a place with forced air. I don't think baseboard heat puts them in a tough situation. Turning off the heat does.

Not sure why you're being critical of me though. All I said was if someone is so picky to demand forced air heat, granite countertops, French door fridge, then they should be buying a house, not renting (or renting in B or A class areas). It's not a slam on the type of person, it's a business decision based on the type of property.

But I'm glad to see you are doing your part by cleaning up the drug dealers and hookers.

@John Hickey, maybe you've never dealt with C and D tenants. Hush.

@John Underwood, if he states that the applicant didn't meet standard criteria, he will have to prove that he shared with the applicant what the standard criteria were before they applied. Otherwise the landlord could make up some criteria after the fact to justify declining them. Best to say you rented to a more qualified applicant and leave it at that.

@Andrew B., I don't think they have to explain anything in the credit report. But by law you may have to provide a letter saying which credit report you used. I would avoid all of that and just say you selected the best applicant.

DO NOT GIVE THEM ANY DETAILS. SIMPLY YOU SELECTED THE MOST QUALIFIED APPLICANT. PERIOD!! Anything more could get you into trouble.

Also, some of your tones make it seem like I have a dilapidated property and I'm just trying to avoid doing work. That is not the case. If you were to walk the property you would think everything is fine, what's the problem. But if you go in with a ruler and say, "based on this window size, this room needs to be 10 sq ft smaller." or "this outlet is 3 inches too far from the previous one."