Who would you rent to?

[NetWareHead]

Profiling people is not only douchey, but it can get you in trouble. If everything checks out on all three, then whoever puts a deposit down first gets it.

http://civilrights.findlaw.com/discrimination/housing-discrimination-faqs.html

Fuck this. I'm a landlord and it is in my best interests to profile and find the best tenant that works out for me and my business.

Horse puck. Everyone profiles and discriminates everyday. Where it's contrary to law, they just come up with a PC excuse to do what they want to do anyway.

This. The best way to deny somebody you don't want renting is to use a combination of legal excuses such as bad credit and maybe lack of good rental history.


OP, I would not rent to any of those three choices.

I don't like renting to college students. Simply because they are more prone to having parties, making noise that disrupts the neighbors and trashing the place. The cat doesn't bother me that much. From my current tenants with a cat, I got an extra $50 rent a month plus a promise to shampoo the carpets after they vacate. Strippers...No experience renting to strippers but I would imagine that they would be more involved in illegal activities such as drugs etc... and I don't want that on premise. Kids I don't like either for the fact they cause more mess and wear and tear on my property. Last choice, are you serious? Unspayed yorkie lol.

I'd wait until better quality tenants came along. If this is the quality of tenants who are applying for your unit, you may want to raise the rent which usually weeds out the desperate and problematic applicants.

 

[SpatiallyAware]

Regarding pets.. Near a college campus like this people either have pets or kids. Out of ~50 applicants literally everyone either has a pet or a kid.

Over the years I've had much better luck with pets. The vast majority of the damages done has been by 5 to 17 year old kids...

And, I can't charge a deposit for a kid like I can a pet. So for this property the rent is $1550, deposit is $1550. If they have a small pet (cat, dog less than 30lbs) it's another $1550 refundable deposit if there are no stains or smells. If it's a large pet I charge $200 cleaning fee plus $1350 refundable pet deposit.

Keep in mind that this is an income property... So I have no personal attachment to the carpet or anything else. I don't care if the carpet is ruined as long as the deposit will cover it. For this house it costs me about $2500 to have builder's grade carpet installed and everything cleaned/painted/prepped for a new tenant. It's a 4 bedroom 3 bath, decent sized living areas.


My thought process is:

Strippers/boob burger type places - I like the solid income, don't like the potential headaches. No pets (so no pet deposit) but decent risk of drama and damages. Their employment history is only about 6 months. If they had been stripping for 2-3 years I would've probably gone with them instead.

Young couple with kids - They are getting by, but if either one loses their job (or if they split up) then they can't pay rent. Most young couples with kids are financially overburdened and living paycheck to paycheck. I actually deal with this fairly often, generally the mother's parents pay their way out of the lease to move the grandbabies back in. I've gotten to where I don't even 'fight' these single mothers to uphold the lease, if they can't pay I just want them out and the house clean so I can rerent.

College kids - Most college kids, even partiers, seem to care a LOT about their credit and rental references. I've yet to be 100% burned by them, while I've had both single parents and elderly people try to screw me because they simply don't care about their credit any more. Also, college kids can usually lean on their parents for help and they are able to find roommates without resorting to random craigslist people.

 

[SpatiallyAware]

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I'd wait until better quality tenants came along. If this is the quality of tenants who are applying for your unit, you may want to raise the rent which usually weeds out the desperate and problematic applicants.

The house setup is perfect for roommates, it has an in-law suite with a separate kitchen and entrance.

Because of this I've found that when I raise the rent I end up with groups of 6+ trying to squish into the house, IE it's too large of a property for 1 or 2 people. It's the perfect size for 3 or 4 roommates.

 

[NetWareHead]

The house setup is perfect for roommates, it has an in-law suite with a separate kitchen and entrance.

Because of this I've found that when I raise the rent I end up with groups of 6+ trying to squish into the house, IE it's too large of a property for 1 or 2 people. It's the perfect size for 3 or 4 roommates.

Nothing is wrong with roommates, I rent to roommates anyway. IMO, the people you listed in your OP are is less than desirable situations and carry a higher risk of problems.

 

[fstime]

Never do only one security deposit, at least 1.5x.

If the tenant says to you at the end of the month/beginning of the month "this is my last month renting here, this is my 30 day notice, and by the way, I am using my security deposit as the last months rent" you will not have enough time to evict, plus you will have to fork over $$$ for lawyers and housing marshals.

This leaves you screwed if they're any damages. A little negotiating trick is to have them pay 1x security up front and build the second security into the first few months rent sort of like a payment plan, and have it go back to normal afterwards.

 

[shortylickens]

I like strippers but I would never wanna live near or with them. Too much drama.

I think the girls with the cat would offer the fewest problems in the long run. Make rules about overnight guests and enforce.

 

[PhoKingGuy]

Ethnicity of college students are key. One of my friends back in Irvine only rents to fobby chinese/korean/japanese students only, horrible, but it works.

 

[nageov3t]

strippers. steady income and likely ties to the community, as opposed to college kids who can trash the place and run.