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I received several applications for the rental property I have available in North Dallas.
The credit reports are starting to come in and it’s not looking good so far.
One applicant has 10 items in collection. 3 are medical which I usually don’t count but the other 7 are car and utility payments.
This applicant is also going from $850 a month rent to $1395 a month rent – with the collection problems at $850 a month rent, I doubt they could afford the higher rent. They have excellent income so I don’t understand the payment problems.Another applicant has 3 items in collection – 2 are medical and 1 is a student loan. They have a long work history and their income is good. This is my best prospect so far but they have 4 kids which can do a lot of damage to the house.
I’m still waiting on several other background checks to come back. But so far, these are not ideal tenants. It’s better to leave the house vacant than put the wrong tenant in the house.
Another applicant is ideal but they can’t start renting until mid-May. I was hoping to get it occupied by April 1st at the latest.
DOD – Dead on delivery!
One application came in from one email name, the name on the application was a different name, and the credit report said the person has a completely different AKA — and none of them have any credit history. Their $5k a month job was a lie.
I think the social security number was purchased.. These are likely illegals.The other one has a 530 credit score and 12 items in collection. So, what are the chances of me getting rent on time? slim!
But showing the house more tomorrow and at least one of them sounds really good – with good credit they say.
I finally found a great tenant for this house!
I’ve had at least 200 calls and emails about this rental property. Some of the people said they were moving because the house they had been leasing for many years was being sold. It’s the top of the market in Dallas so some landlords are selling or exchanging. There is a huge influx of people moving to Texas because no state income tax and there are jobs jobs jobs.
Are others seeing this kind of turn out for a rentals?
Jackie,
For me there is no lack of potential tenants wanting to rent. Just as you have found you have to be patient and find the right tenant for the right property. It is not unusual for me to go through 50-100 applicants until I find the right person for the right property. Big mistake that to many landlords do is to just through a body, anybody into a property to get it rented up. Landlords have two options do it the wrong way and they will burn out, or do it the right way and love being landlord. Perfect segway to David Tilney’s up coming class on Property Management. He is the best.Thanks for this thread Jackie. I needed the refresher to remember/re-learn how to rent a house again. Have not had a vacancy in 3.5 years and now I have two in one month. Still a happy landlord but not happy I must go to work for a few days/weeks to get these cleaned up & rented to good/paying folks.
HI Karen
We did an open house on Saturday and Sunday too. We had about 200 people come through the rental. And another 200-300 calls. It was crazy. I was not planning to do an open house on Sunday but when Saturday did not produce any good applicants we decided to do an open house on Sunday too.
70% – 80% of the people at the open house came from 10 signs that we had placed around the neighborhood.
I also had the house advertised on:
craiglists – with new ads every day for 4 days.
Rentals.com ( which automatically puts it on many other sites) …cost $60
RegisterSigns.com – free and puts the ad all over the internet.And we used a google voice number with a recorded message instead of taking 200 calls!
The BEST qualified applicants came from online advertising. The people I selected actually sent in their application before they even saw the house. I had a lot of interior and exterior pics online so they knew what the house looked like. They went to see the house after turning in their application. Both had credit scores in the mid 700’s, more than 15 years employment, no collections and very little debt.
The people who came in from signs had low credit scores, criminal records, and a lot of items in collection… plus at least one illegal. Many of the applicants would have been going from $850 a month rent to $1500 a month rent – which is not sustainable especially when they already have collection problems. Most of these I did not even check their credit because it was just not realistic that they could afford the property. It’s crazy that some people don’t have a clue what they can afford.. and that’s what gets them in a credit mess.
Would I use signs again? I’m not sure. I’d rather not have 200 non-qualified people come through the house. I’d rather not get applications from people with bad credit. You could require that applicants supply you with a credit report — if that is allowed in your state. Can you have a requirement that the new rent is not more than 20% of existing rent – I’m not sure if that is considered discrimination.
I did advertise no vouchers.
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