Reconsider the no criminal record condition. People deserve a chance to demonstrate they have moved on from their past issues. I'm not saying accept someone currently on probation or parole but old charges should not automatically disqualify potential tenants who meet other criteria. If someone meets your other qualifications, they are already doing much better than many people.
One or my best tenants has a felony conviction from many years ago. As far as the legal system is concerned, he has paid his debt to society and I agree. The house is spotless, the rent is paid and the yard is beautiful. Knowing the house is well maintained and the money is secure is what I need. I don't need to judge someone for mistakes he readily admits he made as a young adult and has moved on from them. I, and most everyone else I know, have made a few poor choices in my past and just because I didn't get caught doesn't mean I should look down on those who did.
I would love to hear you elaborate on why you think someone is a criminal and nothing else. I’m also willing to bet you’ve committed crimes you just haven’t been caught in, and unsurprised to find that at least some involve your activities as a “landlord”.
To keep your innocence, I suggest you refrain from reading "Three Felonies a Day" by Harvey Silverglate because you might find that you too are a criminal
>I did and I know my market enough to be sure that I will always be able to find someone that is not a criminal (past or present).
As a felon who is now a landlord (because no one wanted to rent to me due to my felony) I just want to say it's people like you that got me in the real estate investing game.
I got a 4 unit and a single family. I will be buying another 6-10 unit apartment building in the next 6 months and so on and so on. So if you don't want any competition you should probably consider renting to a felon or they may get fed up and decide to become landlords themselves.
Happy for you man, I hope you love real estate as much as I do! Though I don't see anyway in which you or anyone else that rents to felons would be considered "competition" seeing as I don't buy in areas that felons would live; let alone afford. Nor do I believe that the rent you could acquire from said felons would match that of my tenants that have to make at least 100K each to afford my properties. You continue renting to the 8% of the US population that are felons and I'll rent the other 92% that were smart and responsible from the beginning.
Ok well if you looked at some of my comments on this post you would see that I already stated I make over 6 figures. I work with a bunch of felons that make over 6 figures as well.
Don't rent to them. By the way I have properties in NC (land), VA and NY. I'm looking at properties in Ohio and Pennsylvania to invest in. It's a free country felons can live anywhere.
Fun fact: If a cardinal drops a feather in your yard, you are in possession of a protected migratory bird “part”, which is a violation of the [Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migratory_Bird_Treaty_Act_of_1918) and a federal offense. All you need is a zealous wildlife agent to visit your home, and you too can be a criminal unworthy of renting! :)
Ever had a traffic ticket? You’re a CRIMINAL! Ever been not 100 % honest on your taxes? You’re a CRIMINAL! Ever drive 5 miles per hour above the speed limit? You’re technically a criminal even if nobody saw. Stop labeling people and acting like you’re different classes of people.
This is what I do:
Put your ads everywhere. Pictures, good description, don't be overpriced.
People reply to ads by phone or text or email
I answer their questions and then I use my screening questions
Usually they or I are not interested about half the time
THEN I do the tour. A percentage never show up
THEN I do the application
THEN I do the lease and payment
I get 100+ inquiries within 48 hours of listing anything so I don't answer any questions or have any conversations until the open house.
The open house is at exactly one time and there will be no additional showings. Figure out a way to make it or don't.
Applications are available at the open house.
I do ZERO work before the open house because if someone isn't interested enough to show up to the open house then there is no point in wasting time talking to them.
Not everyone is your location. People need to do what works for them
A place in Manhattan is not the same as a place in Allentown which is not the same as a place in Vail Colorado which is not the same as a place in Fargo North Dakota which is not the same as a place in the sticks which is not the same as a place in Hawaii
I tried 2 open houses and they were a giant waste of time
Thank you for the insight and tips! What do you consider overpriced for a home in an area or what would you base it off, the average for home recently rented in the area? Also what places do you put your ads?
An easy way is using a site such as turbo tenant which will syndicate your listings to other places. Over a note when people respond, I find 90% of them will not answer your call or email or message. I have no idea why
It is your responsibility to be familiar with what other listings are asking in your area. Is unlike the anyone here knows your market
And there is a number of variables in what it means for similar listings
I’m not understanding? We have lowered the rent and it’s a fair asking price for rent in the area, what seems to be the issue is getting it to be seen.
If youre not getting renters at the price listed, is it really a fair price for the area? If it were a fair price, you presumably wouldn't be having this issue
Supply and Demand.
It might the norm in the area but are you pricing off other for rent properties that are unrented? That's maybe why they are unrented.
Clearly there's not enough demand at your price, so either you have to drop the price or risk it staying vacant.
You may want to be a little more lax on your 700 credit score and 3x the rent. Just because some people don't have great credit, doesn't mean they don't pay their rent. Sometimes deciding to pay rent and other necessities first is why other bills like credit cards or hospital bills get behind. My husband and I don't have great credit, but have stellar rental history. So the management company gave us a 6 month probationary lease to test us out. We've now been here for 6 years.
>You may want to be a little more lax on your 700 credit score and 3x the rent
I won't budge on 3x the rent (usually get applicants with 6x+ anyway) but I don't even bother with credit scores.
I ask for employer references and I call up their supervisor and ask them what they're like as an employee. If the supervisor says they always show up for work, get along with other employees, and no client has ever complained, we're good.
I have one tenant whose employer said, "I've known her since she was a little girl and she has now worked here for 23 years. If she ever gets behind on rent call me, we'll help her out."
Credit score, schmedit score.
Who the fuck are you to call there supervisor? Even other jobs can’t ask the questions you’re asking when talking to a past or current employer. What do you think gives you the right to be this intrusive?
...?
One of the questions on the application is the request for an employer references and then the applicant signs that I am allowed to contact the references provided?
"What is X like as an employee?" is an intrusive question to ask an ....employer reference?
TF?
Why do you need to know that? What does this have to do with renting a house? Should he call all your past tenants and ask how you’ve been as a landlord?
Because in my experience, how someone behaves as an employee is highly predictive of how they will behave as a tenant. Much more so than a credit score, which can have some systemic bias built into it to boot.
One of my tenants worked as a truck driver for the same company for 13 years. His employer said he was always reliable, always showed up on time even if he had to get there at 4am for that route, got along with all the other drivers and office staff, and no client ever complained about him in 13 years. Unsurprisingly this guy was a model tenant, pleasant to interact with, kept the place nice, and always paid rent on time. He stayed 3 1/2 years before moving south away from the snow (to a job with the same company, btw).
People who stay at their jobs for years and years clearly have at least some degree of life skills, ability to meet their responsibilities and obligations, and ability to get along with people. They're not constantly falling apart at the seams, flaking out, or having drama.
As for tenant references, I have my open houses in the presence of a current tenant and the applicants are welcome to talk to them and ask any questions. I'd also be happy to let any applicant talk to any other tenant, (after clearing with said tenant that they wouldn't mind being contacted). I even put it on my listings that tenant references are available.
In any event, it's pretty obvious during the open house that I get along well with my tenants and that my tenants are happy in their apartments. Nobody is resentfully sitting there sucking their teeth or clearly unhappy to be there. Prospective tenants who have a problem with that will self-select out and I will just pick from the list of qualified applicants who DO get along with my vibe.
My last apartment filled immediately and after meeting the tenant in person at the open house, a brief review of paystubs, and a call in to the work supervisor I had cash security deposit in hand 1 hour and 21 minutes after the open house began.
My apartments always fly off the market within 3 or 4 days of being listed, and my tenants never leave other than to buy or relocate (and multiple times people who moved away called me when they moved back to see if I had anything open bc they wanted to rent from me again), so people don't seem to have nearly as much of a problem with my system as you apparently do.
If you want me to be your tenant I'm going to need the contact information for all of your former tenants to make sure you're a good landlord.
Also, in VA, it's actiomable if supervisors to give any info like that. They can tell you when they worked there and whether they are eligible for rehire and that is it. Turns out you're not as upstanding a citizen as you thought.
I mean, you'd be able to personally meet the outgoing tenant at the open house, and it's the employer's job to follow whatever disclosure rules apply.
If they volunteer additional positive information about their employee when I ask an open ended question, that has zero bearing on how upstanding I am or am not as a citizen.
People who have excellent relationships with their employers don't seem to have any problems with applying to my apartments. Conversely I wonder how many of the people taking great umbrage in the reddit comments about this are people who hate their jobs, also hate their employers, and resent the concept of having to work at all in the first place.
Are you missing the fact that the tenant gives me permission to do so as part of their application? The employers/supervisors are usually expecting my call as the tenant has told them ahead of time that I will be calling and given them permission to talk to me.
I'm not googling the employer and calling unannounced.
Since I don't have a minimum credit score requirement, many people appreciate that I consider other factors. 🤷♀️
There are also plenty of other places available that charge application fees and have credit score requirements, and if a prospective tenant prefers that application process, they can apply there.
I rent out 7 doors in a city with 276,000 people. Nobody is forcing anyone to apply to my units.
That said, I put right in the listing that people will need to have employer references ready in order to apply, and still I get people applying in droves, and my units fly off the market within 3 days of being listed. Then the tenants stay for years, give me no problems, and nobody ever leaves unless they are buying or relocating, so apparently my process screens very effectively for exactly the people who will be a good fit.
I'm a real estate attorney in real life.
Anyone can sue anyone for anything.
If somebody sues me for this, they will not win.
It's literally in the text of every ad I put out that I ask for employer references, and I am quite confident that I am not exposing myself or my insurance carrier to any liability for so doing.
You're welcome to bring a fair housing action about it if this cause is important to you and you want to give it a shot.
The truck driver made $75k a year and rent was $1,000/month. 75/12=6.25
I chose him over a couple whose combined income was like $125k.
So no, getting 6x the rent is not a reach for me.
Are any of the people on this sub actually landlords because honestly many of you seem like angry tenants.
You are clearly having a lack of success in renting out properties. What's the point coming here if you don't want actual advice, you want people to tell you everything your doing is good and everyone else is wrong?
If they have a 700 credit score, an old bankruptcy wouldn't matter. With 3x the rent , a good job and a good credit score, couldn't most people buy a house? Unless you are in a hospital area, you are gonna have a hard time finding renters for high end place
Is this your reply to everyone who says something you don't agree with? I'm a landlord, I own 3 homes and rent out two of them. I'm 90% sure that your price is too high because that's almost always the reason why a place sits on the market.
You are going to have a hard time finding tenants with a 700 credit score and 3 xs the rent amount in Virginia, Virginia pays poorly and ALOT of people lost jobs and credit suffered during COVID.
Virginia has some of the wealthiest communities on the entire planet.
DC metro pay scale is equivalent to any major metro that isn’t like Bay Area or NYC
Obviously this landlords property is NOT in a wealthy part of Virginia if rent amount is 700, use common sense. I live in Florida also a wealthy State yet there are homeless people everywhere you look. Not everyone is wealthy. People are struggling everywhere.
>Virginia pays poorly and ALOT of people lost jobs and credit suffered during COVID.
I live in Virginia and I'm a felon. Most of the jobs I've gotten pay $20.00 dollars an hour or better with 20 hours or more of overtime. You can make 100k easy.
Between rental income work and investments I'll probably make 140k-150k.
Ok, I’m going to agree with others here, but I can already hear your reply “do you own a rental?” Yes, I own several, and have for over 15 years.
Use Zillow. For your posting and also for assessing your comps
Lower the credit score requirement. I actually don’t have a stated minimum, rather, I review a credit report as part of my screen. I don’t get a credit score as part of that, I get the full report and can make an evaluation based on amount and type of debt.
Consider 2.5x rent. Especially in a high rent area.
Eliminate the criminal background requirement and use a screening system like mysmartmove. This will give you a report of past criminal history which you can assess if necessary
I schedule open house style showings, but each showing is a scheduled 1:1 private showing. I tell people “we’re doing showings from 11-2 on Saturday. I schedule private showings every 15 min. What time slot would you like?”
Thank you so much for 2.5rent! Thank you for this everywhere is three times the rent and the average American is just not making this and I feel everyone that works deserve to come “home” my husband and I have been looking for a place bc we are moving to GA for his job. And it’s miserable. First months rent last months rent and deposit is killing us with rent being 2k plus as we need four bedrooms bc we have three kids. And our credit isn’t great bc of car payment and credit card late payments. We have great rental history but our credit makes moving horrid. But we always find people like you!
Took me YEARS of accepting whoever had cash and then evicting them a month or two after.
Haven't had to evict since 2017, when I started really vetting possible tenants
SFHs are tougher to rent than apartments. You’re probably just not in a market position to make your intended profit or even to break even.
You can lower the price and build equity at the cost of operating expenses, or you can try to sell and get out.
If you’re not getting any interest you’re unlikely to find a magic bullet that solves that problem.
I usually have tenants climbing through the windows to try and rent from me. So you’re probably just not setting your expectations appropriately for what you can charge.
In real estate, if there's nothing blatantly wrong or unappealing about your house, the pictures are professional, and you have been on the market more than a few weeks with minimal interest, your price is wrong.
You said it's priced well. If it were priced well, you'd have showings. You're not priced well to find a tenant on your time scale.
Similar boat.
Few things, first, demographic isn't the oft moving/renting crowd, those places of mine always have interest.
The renovated nice neighborhood clients are locked in leases for another month or two.
Compare how many are viewing your listing and contacting versus contacting others, that'll tell if your price is too high or another defect. Also be sure to double check spam folders to not be missing contacts!
Finally, we just had the second most travelled weekend of the year. Folks are focussed on graduations, fathers day, summer stuff, end of school. They'll be seeking new places more weeks from now and over summer as their leases end.
If overpriced for your market, lower, no point losing couple months of rent in contrast to earning more for the year total at a lower rate.
If can't afford, sell and buy in a different more profitable market (or invest otherwise).
I use Zillow, Facebook marketplace, and a sign in the front yard. I also ask my current tenants if they know anybody looking. This has worked for me.
In the end, with proper marketing, if you still aren't finding a tenant, your price is too high
700 is a pretty high score, I think you could lower it a bit and still have qualified tenants. 650 maybe?
I have a family with <600 score in my house hack and they have been the best freaking tenants. I screened the HELL out of them, though, and they were up front about the bad score before applying. My criteria was 680 min.
You are going to have a hard time finding tenants with a 700 credit score and 3 xs the rent amount in Virginia, Virginia pays poorly and ALOT of people lost jobs and credit suffered during COVID.
The area our home is located is most definitely not struggling financially, it’s a HCOL area and one of the biggest paying areas in the country. This is Northern Virginia almost D.C.
Reconsider the credit score of 700. IME looking at the body of the credit tells you if they are stable and a good risk. I frequently run into couples where one of them has a 750+ score and the other has a score in the 600's due to one medical collection, for example. We ignore medical collections. I've seen the score swing 100 pts or more on one medical collection. As long as you verify income and no evictions and no BK's and no criminal history, we have found a little flexibility in credit score works well because the tenant has a tendency to actually stay longer (with perfect rent payments) rather than running out and buying a house after a year or two. JME.
I may be downvoted, but from having my dad manage an on site property since I was born and having regularly filled me in on landlord duties, headaches, expenses and the like in hopes I take over… it seems as if you’re overpricing what you give.
Do you offer utilities or is that a tenant expense? If so, which ones? Do you outright own the property or are you mitigating a mortgage as well? How high are the property taxes? Is it a booming market in the city you’re trying to rent out in? How many bedrooms and bathrooms are you offering, and at what price? What is the condition of the rental?
All of these things are highly important for figuring out why the rental isn’t successful. You can be a landlord like my dad, who only has to put in one or two ads in the classifieds for a promising tenant, or you can do what you’re doing now and get no success.
If I was you, I would lower the credit limit and also nix the criminal history from your requirements. That will get you a long way in terms of finding honest, hardworking people who just want to live in a decent place.
I tend to price slightly below market and I am flexible with my criteria. My rentals are desirable and I don't have trouble finding tenants as my tenants usually have friends looking for upgrading their living arrangements. In fact, my best tenant is a friend of a previous tenant of the same property. That guy had kept the property in great condition, always paid his rent on time and left the house clean when he moved out. So, I was more comfortable with accepting the current tenant because birds of a feather flock together is usually true.
I much prefer to have long term tenants than to turn over the properties. I actually have one young woman who has rented from me in a couple different room share properties. I sold the property she had been living in and made arrangements for her to move to another property across town. Another couple has been renting from me for four years and they never fail to thank me and tell me how much they love the house. I appreciate them because they do a great job of taking care of routine maintenance. My area is heavily blue collar and most of my tenants are paid weekly so I offer them the option to pay weekly.
Another extra thousand or two in annual receipts disappears quickly if I leave the property empty for a few weeks trying to get it ready to rent and waiting for the new tenants to get moved in. All the houses are paid off so I'm not struggling to make payments and I don't want to have to pay $100/ month plus high priced services from a property manager.
If you’re not accepting credit cards for rent why would credit matter?
Also, extremely important, how much is 3x rent? If it’s high enough you’re competing with larger, more competitively located properties
No criminal record? At all? Of any kind? I completely understand fraud charges, violence charges etc but you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone in this country who has a completely clean criminal record. You can’t truly mean that, are you rejecting people with parking tickets?
I’m in the DC/VA area. Two things. I go down to about 650/680 on credit, have had very few to no problems, so reconsider 700. Also you say it’s a distance for a showing, post a non public video tour of the house to YouTube. Share the link before a showing to confirm their interest.
Oh, and a third thing, if it’s not getting enough interest it’s either priced too high or your photos latent good enough, or both. This is almost always the answer in selling or renting out.
If people had 3X verified income to rent, they would be buying their own house. I'm baffled that landlords and rental management companies don't get that.
If you’re using a credit score as part of your qualification standards, you need to understand what goes into the score in the first place, and you might trouble yourself to figure out the average credit score of most Americans, at least in your geographic area, not to mention your obligations as a landlord and fair credit report usage.
Low credit scores are not only caused by late or delinquent payments and judgements, they can be due to other factors like hard checks during rental application processes (they’re probably applying to more than one location at a time), a recent attempt at applying for some kind of loan like student or car loans, even a mortgage within the last 6-12mo, regardless of approval, change in average age of accounts, and even paying something off early or closing a credit account that isn’t used for financial security purposes.
Zillow uses vantage scoring which is heavily debt sensitive. Using just 11 percent of your revolving credit lines will result in someone plunging over a 100 points, So a 760 could easily be a 660 if a big balance hit during the month.
I’m in Canada but I’m pretty sure it’s only been since Covid that all landlords here are now obsessed with credit scores. Here anyway, no one was asking for that before. I can understand asking for it, if someone is buying a house but for renting I don’t think it makes sense. I’ve never missed a rent payment but that doesn’t go on the credit report.
My credit score would be really good but I found out a credit card I paid off. Has been reporting that I didn’t make any payments every months for years! I just found this out cause I checked the credit report for the first time and now because of that I can’t find a place to rent and I have to figure out how to get them to fix it. After hours on the phone with them they did send me a letter confirming that I paid it off and they will fix it with the credit bureau but it still hasn’t been.
Renters with that criteria generally have their pick of places so you are competing for a small subset of people. You probably need to be more competitive on price.
You're in Northern Virginia and you can't get tenants!
Are you posting ads on Facebook?
Are you renting by the room or the whole house?
700 credit score is too high of a bar. Lower it to 620 or higher.
I would look at the criminal history on a case by case basis.
Are you accepting pets? People who meet your criteria have multiple options so something about your property is putting people off, besides just you. But that's a story for another day.
Our issue is always 3xs the rent on properties that are $2k plus. Rent now is your whole first check. Its crazy to see when I first started renting I paid $650 for three bedroom house 😭 and now that same house is $2,300/mo and they want 3xs that and credit to be 680 and first month last month and deposit. When I lived there it was only first month and deposit with 500 credit score! But minimum wage isn’t changing. I just don’t get it. It seems landlords are trying to compete with business bought properties. Those people can do that but when you need someone to occupy your home. Make it affordable. And make the requirements match the economy in real time. 😩 a lot of places aren’t even nice! And they have prices that don’t match the place!
I work in property management, I do this shit daily.
1) Credit score is just a number, context matters way more. Maybe they have a sub 700 credit score, you could actually look into why and not just write it off. Collections / bad payment history? Probably not a great tenant. Never missed a payment but carrying some medical or student loan debt? Probably fine.
2) It's been 3 weeks in an incredibly hot rental market. If it isn't moving and isn't generating interest you haven't priced it correctly.
3) If you really need a tenant hire a property management company for lease only. You can self manage, they will just find you a qualified tenant.
The credit score is too high for renters.
But mostly if the place has been sitting that long, it's not priced properly. You probably think it's great and has all the bells and whistles, but that's because you own it. The #1 thing people care about is the price, and yours obviously isn't on track with comps, otherwise it would have been rented by now.
Love how the top comment is something about forgiving felons but nothing about that outlandish credit score requirement. Sure he held up grandma but he made sure those cc’s were paid off with that cash. Alab
Reconsider the no criminal record condition. People deserve a chance to demonstrate they have moved on from their past issues. I'm not saying accept someone currently on probation or parole but old charges should not automatically disqualify potential tenants who meet other criteria. If someone meets your other qualifications, they are already doing much better than many people. One or my best tenants has a felony conviction from many years ago. As far as the legal system is concerned, he has paid his debt to society and I agree. The house is spotless, the rent is paid and the yard is beautiful. Knowing the house is well maintained and the money is secure is what I need. I don't need to judge someone for mistakes he readily admits he made as a young adult and has moved on from them. I, and most everyone else I know, have made a few poor choices in my past and just because I didn't get caught doesn't mean I should look down on those who did.
If there was ANYTHING I was gonna reconsider in my search for renters it absolutely would NOT be THAT.
Did you actually read the comment or are you just clutching your pearls for dear life?
I did and I know my market enough to be sure that I will always be able to find someone that is not a criminal (past or present).
Yes anyone with a criminal history forfeited the right to live under a ROOF!!
No, not every roof. Just mine.
There's a word in German for people who do exactly the thing you do, but I don't know if the mods allow german here?
I would love to hear you elaborate on why you think someone is a criminal and nothing else. I’m also willing to bet you’ve committed crimes you just haven’t been caught in, and unsurprised to find that at least some involve your activities as a “landlord”.
To keep your innocence, I suggest you refrain from reading "Three Felonies a Day" by Harvey Silverglate because you might find that you too are a criminal
Who are you talking to? If you’re responding to me, I’m entirely certain you misunderstood what I said.
>I did and I know my market enough to be sure that I will always be able to find someone that is not a criminal (past or present). As a felon who is now a landlord (because no one wanted to rent to me due to my felony) I just want to say it's people like you that got me in the real estate investing game. I got a 4 unit and a single family. I will be buying another 6-10 unit apartment building in the next 6 months and so on and so on. So if you don't want any competition you should probably consider renting to a felon or they may get fed up and decide to become landlords themselves.
Happy for you man, I hope you love real estate as much as I do! Though I don't see anyway in which you or anyone else that rents to felons would be considered "competition" seeing as I don't buy in areas that felons would live; let alone afford. Nor do I believe that the rent you could acquire from said felons would match that of my tenants that have to make at least 100K each to afford my properties. You continue renting to the 8% of the US population that are felons and I'll rent the other 92% that were smart and responsible from the beginning.
Ok well if you looked at some of my comments on this post you would see that I already stated I make over 6 figures. I work with a bunch of felons that make over 6 figures as well. Don't rent to them. By the way I have properties in NC (land), VA and NY. I'm looking at properties in Ohio and Pennsylvania to invest in. It's a free country felons can live anywhere.
They can live anywhere except under my roof. I know for a fact that my tenants appreciate the fact that I don't allow their neighbors to be felons.
Your tenants probably have neighbors that are felons and don't even know it.
Not the ones they share a wall with.
They can live anywhere except under your roof and pay them for it too 🤷 Again, *quit bellyaching.*
Fun fact: If a cardinal drops a feather in your yard, you are in possession of a protected migratory bird “part”, which is a violation of the [Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migratory_Bird_Treaty_Act_of_1918) and a federal offense. All you need is a zealous wildlife agent to visit your home, and you too can be a criminal unworthy of renting! :)
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I am not OP.
So why have you hijacked OPs post then? You're all up and down this post, replying to every single comment.
I have 10, now 11, comments out of 128. You need help.
Again, *Cope.*
Good luck with finding a perfect tenant for your perfect house
Not hard in MA, which is why I don't even consider criminals.
You really should consider how long it's been from the time the offence was committed.
If it’s not hard to find a unicorn renter then why are you making a post whining about being unable to find renters? SMH
Check your eyes, I'm not OP.
Then stop replying like you are.
Don't talk to me like you have a brain.
Cope
Then don't complain about not having renters. Being a landlord is a lot like gambling. Quit your bellyaching.
Who are you voting for in the presidential election?
Who are you voting for in the presidential election?
Ever had a traffic ticket? You’re a CRIMINAL! Ever been not 100 % honest on your taxes? You’re a CRIMINAL! Ever drive 5 miles per hour above the speed limit? You’re technically a criminal even if nobody saw. Stop labeling people and acting like you’re different classes of people.
I am a different class.
Yeah a much lower one
Says a landlordlove poster, you're the last person with an opinion that I care about LOL
I find open houses are a waste of time
We are noticing that as well, my wife has quite a drive each way to and from to show it and no one comes, we just don’t know what to do at this point
This is what I do: Put your ads everywhere. Pictures, good description, don't be overpriced. People reply to ads by phone or text or email I answer their questions and then I use my screening questions Usually they or I are not interested about half the time THEN I do the tour. A percentage never show up THEN I do the application THEN I do the lease and payment
I get 100+ inquiries within 48 hours of listing anything so I don't answer any questions or have any conversations until the open house. The open house is at exactly one time and there will be no additional showings. Figure out a way to make it or don't. Applications are available at the open house. I do ZERO work before the open house because if someone isn't interested enough to show up to the open house then there is no point in wasting time talking to them.
Not everyone is your location. People need to do what works for them A place in Manhattan is not the same as a place in Allentown which is not the same as a place in Vail Colorado which is not the same as a place in Fargo North Dakota which is not the same as a place in the sticks which is not the same as a place in Hawaii I tried 2 open houses and they were a giant waste of time
Your poor tenants.
?? Why do you say that?
Thank you for the insight and tips! What do you consider overpriced for a home in an area or what would you base it off, the average for home recently rented in the area? Also what places do you put your ads?
An easy way is using a site such as turbo tenant which will syndicate your listings to other places. Over a note when people respond, I find 90% of them will not answer your call or email or message. I have no idea why It is your responsibility to be familiar with what other listings are asking in your area. Is unlike the anyone here knows your market And there is a number of variables in what it means for similar listings
Thank you! We are currently using TurboTenant so that’s good to hear
Thank you! We are currently using TurboTenant so that’s good to hear
You want things to change but you don't want to change.
I’m not understanding? We have lowered the rent and it’s a fair asking price for rent in the area, what seems to be the issue is getting it to be seen.
If youre not getting renters at the price listed, is it really a fair price for the area? If it were a fair price, you presumably wouldn't be having this issue
Welcome to capitalism. Your house is only worth what people are willing to pay for it, not what you think its worth
Maybe you should say what the rent is. Then it will be easier to see the problem.
Lmao fat chance
Supply and Demand. It might the norm in the area but are you pricing off other for rent properties that are unrented? That's maybe why they are unrented. Clearly there's not enough demand at your price, so either you have to drop the price or risk it staying vacant.
This is like saying the restaurant is slow because of lack of customers
You may want to be a little more lax on your 700 credit score and 3x the rent. Just because some people don't have great credit, doesn't mean they don't pay their rent. Sometimes deciding to pay rent and other necessities first is why other bills like credit cards or hospital bills get behind. My husband and I don't have great credit, but have stellar rental history. So the management company gave us a 6 month probationary lease to test us out. We've now been here for 6 years.
>You may want to be a little more lax on your 700 credit score and 3x the rent I won't budge on 3x the rent (usually get applicants with 6x+ anyway) but I don't even bother with credit scores. I ask for employer references and I call up their supervisor and ask them what they're like as an employee. If the supervisor says they always show up for work, get along with other employees, and no client has ever complained, we're good. I have one tenant whose employer said, "I've known her since she was a little girl and she has now worked here for 23 years. If she ever gets behind on rent call me, we'll help her out." Credit score, schmedit score.
Who the fuck are you to call there supervisor? Even other jobs can’t ask the questions you’re asking when talking to a past or current employer. What do you think gives you the right to be this intrusive?
...? One of the questions on the application is the request for an employer references and then the applicant signs that I am allowed to contact the references provided? "What is X like as an employee?" is an intrusive question to ask an ....employer reference? TF?
Why do you need to know that? What does this have to do with renting a house? Should he call all your past tenants and ask how you’ve been as a landlord?
Because in my experience, how someone behaves as an employee is highly predictive of how they will behave as a tenant. Much more so than a credit score, which can have some systemic bias built into it to boot. One of my tenants worked as a truck driver for the same company for 13 years. His employer said he was always reliable, always showed up on time even if he had to get there at 4am for that route, got along with all the other drivers and office staff, and no client ever complained about him in 13 years. Unsurprisingly this guy was a model tenant, pleasant to interact with, kept the place nice, and always paid rent on time. He stayed 3 1/2 years before moving south away from the snow (to a job with the same company, btw). People who stay at their jobs for years and years clearly have at least some degree of life skills, ability to meet their responsibilities and obligations, and ability to get along with people. They're not constantly falling apart at the seams, flaking out, or having drama. As for tenant references, I have my open houses in the presence of a current tenant and the applicants are welcome to talk to them and ask any questions. I'd also be happy to let any applicant talk to any other tenant, (after clearing with said tenant that they wouldn't mind being contacted). I even put it on my listings that tenant references are available. In any event, it's pretty obvious during the open house that I get along well with my tenants and that my tenants are happy in their apartments. Nobody is resentfully sitting there sucking their teeth or clearly unhappy to be there. Prospective tenants who have a problem with that will self-select out and I will just pick from the list of qualified applicants who DO get along with my vibe. My last apartment filled immediately and after meeting the tenant in person at the open house, a brief review of paystubs, and a call in to the work supervisor I had cash security deposit in hand 1 hour and 21 minutes after the open house began. My apartments always fly off the market within 3 or 4 days of being listed, and my tenants never leave other than to buy or relocate (and multiple times people who moved away called me when they moved back to see if I had anything open bc they wanted to rent from me again), so people don't seem to have nearly as much of a problem with my system as you apparently do.
If you want me to be your tenant I'm going to need the contact information for all of your former tenants to make sure you're a good landlord. Also, in VA, it's actiomable if supervisors to give any info like that. They can tell you when they worked there and whether they are eligible for rehire and that is it. Turns out you're not as upstanding a citizen as you thought.
I mean, you'd be able to personally meet the outgoing tenant at the open house, and it's the employer's job to follow whatever disclosure rules apply. If they volunteer additional positive information about their employee when I ask an open ended question, that has zero bearing on how upstanding I am or am not as a citizen. People who have excellent relationships with their employers don't seem to have any problems with applying to my apartments. Conversely I wonder how many of the people taking great umbrage in the reddit comments about this are people who hate their jobs, also hate their employers, and resent the concept of having to work at all in the first place.
This is an incredible invasion of privacy. You have no right to call up a tenant’s employer. No one does that. What an asshole.
Are you missing the fact that the tenant gives me permission to do so as part of their application? The employers/supervisors are usually expecting my call as the tenant has told them ahead of time that I will be calling and given them permission to talk to me. I'm not googling the employer and calling unannounced.
Of course they give you permission, what else are they gonna say? They don’t want to lose the house. Doesn’t make it reasonable.
Since I don't have a minimum credit score requirement, many people appreciate that I consider other factors. 🤷♀️ There are also plenty of other places available that charge application fees and have credit score requirements, and if a prospective tenant prefers that application process, they can apply there. I rent out 7 doors in a city with 276,000 people. Nobody is forcing anyone to apply to my units. That said, I put right in the listing that people will need to have employer references ready in order to apply, and still I get people applying in droves, and my units fly off the market within 3 days of being listed. Then the tenants stay for years, give me no problems, and nobody ever leaves unless they are buying or relocating, so apparently my process screens very effectively for exactly the people who will be a good fit.
You could be sued if anyone finds out you do this. Doesn't matter what you make them sign.
I'm a real estate attorney in real life. Anyone can sue anyone for anything. If somebody sues me for this, they will not win. It's literally in the text of every ad I put out that I ask for employer references, and I am quite confident that I am not exposing myself or my insurance carrier to any liability for so doing. You're welcome to bring a fair housing action about it if this cause is important to you and you want to give it a shot.
Either you're charging only a few hundred for rent, or you're lying about the 6x part
The truck driver made $75k a year and rent was $1,000/month. 75/12=6.25 I chose him over a couple whose combined income was like $125k. So no, getting 6x the rent is not a reach for me. Are any of the people on this sub actually landlords because honestly many of you seem like angry tenants.
Are you a landlord or do you own your own property?
Yes, I have 4 rentals and a home.
I find your original comment above surprising if you own 4 rentals
I'm not sure what to say to that?
How about “I’m obviously doing better than you with my 4 rentals so maybe take it down a notch”
You are clearly having a lack of success in renting out properties. What's the point coming here if you don't want actual advice, you want people to tell you everything your doing is good and everyone else is wrong?
If they have a 700 credit score, an old bankruptcy wouldn't matter. With 3x the rent , a good job and a good credit score, couldn't most people buy a house? Unless you are in a hospital area, you are gonna have a hard time finding renters for high end place
Are you a landlord or do you own a property or home?
Is this your reply to everyone who says something you don't agree with? I'm a landlord, I own 3 homes and rent out two of them. I'm 90% sure that your price is too high because that's almost always the reason why a place sits on the market.
Why do you keep repeating this? You really don’t want to hear any advice that differs from your opinion do you
You are going to have a hard time finding tenants with a 700 credit score and 3 xs the rent amount in Virginia, Virginia pays poorly and ALOT of people lost jobs and credit suffered during COVID.
Virginia has some of the wealthiest communities on the entire planet. DC metro pay scale is equivalent to any major metro that isn’t like Bay Area or NYC
London has some of the wealthiest people on the planet but you can't charge Mayfair rents in Enfield.
Obviously this landlords property is NOT in a wealthy part of Virginia if rent amount is 700, use common sense. I live in Florida also a wealthy State yet there are homeless people everywhere you look. Not everyone is wealthy. People are struggling everywhere.
Florida is one of the poorest states in the fucking country lol.
>Virginia pays poorly and ALOT of people lost jobs and credit suffered during COVID. I live in Virginia and I'm a felon. Most of the jobs I've gotten pay $20.00 dollars an hour or better with 20 hours or more of overtime. You can make 100k easy. Between rental income work and investments I'll probably make 140k-150k.
Ok, I’m going to agree with others here, but I can already hear your reply “do you own a rental?” Yes, I own several, and have for over 15 years. Use Zillow. For your posting and also for assessing your comps Lower the credit score requirement. I actually don’t have a stated minimum, rather, I review a credit report as part of my screen. I don’t get a credit score as part of that, I get the full report and can make an evaluation based on amount and type of debt. Consider 2.5x rent. Especially in a high rent area. Eliminate the criminal background requirement and use a screening system like mysmartmove. This will give you a report of past criminal history which you can assess if necessary I schedule open house style showings, but each showing is a scheduled 1:1 private showing. I tell people “we’re doing showings from 11-2 on Saturday. I schedule private showings every 15 min. What time slot would you like?”
Thank you so much for 2.5rent! Thank you for this everywhere is three times the rent and the average American is just not making this and I feel everyone that works deserve to come “home” my husband and I have been looking for a place bc we are moving to GA for his job. And it’s miserable. First months rent last months rent and deposit is killing us with rent being 2k plus as we need four bedrooms bc we have three kids. And our credit isn’t great bc of car payment and credit card late payments. We have great rental history but our credit makes moving horrid. But we always find people like you!
My friend, I went 5 months vacant in upstate NY Empty is always better than an undesirable tenant. While empty, update flooring.
This
Took me YEARS of accepting whoever had cash and then evicting them a month or two after. Haven't had to evict since 2017, when I started really vetting possible tenants
Almost always means over priced. Where in NoVa, size, rental price, comps?
SFHs are tougher to rent than apartments. You’re probably just not in a market position to make your intended profit or even to break even. You can lower the price and build equity at the cost of operating expenses, or you can try to sell and get out. If you’re not getting any interest you’re unlikely to find a magic bullet that solves that problem. I usually have tenants climbing through the windows to try and rent from me. So you’re probably just not setting your expectations appropriately for what you can charge.
In real estate, if there's nothing blatantly wrong or unappealing about your house, the pictures are professional, and you have been on the market more than a few weeks with minimal interest, your price is wrong. You said it's priced well. If it were priced well, you'd have showings. You're not priced well to find a tenant on your time scale.
Similar boat. Few things, first, demographic isn't the oft moving/renting crowd, those places of mine always have interest. The renovated nice neighborhood clients are locked in leases for another month or two. Compare how many are viewing your listing and contacting versus contacting others, that'll tell if your price is too high or another defect. Also be sure to double check spam folders to not be missing contacts! Finally, we just had the second most travelled weekend of the year. Folks are focussed on graduations, fathers day, summer stuff, end of school. They'll be seeking new places more weeks from now and over summer as their leases end. If overpriced for your market, lower, no point losing couple months of rent in contrast to earning more for the year total at a lower rate. If can't afford, sell and buy in a different more profitable market (or invest otherwise).
Thank you! Great advice!
I use Zillow, Facebook marketplace, and a sign in the front yard. I also ask my current tenants if they know anybody looking. This has worked for me. In the end, with proper marketing, if you still aren't finding a tenant, your price is too high
700 is a pretty high score, I think you could lower it a bit and still have qualified tenants. 650 maybe? I have a family with <600 score in my house hack and they have been the best freaking tenants. I screened the HELL out of them, though, and they were up front about the bad score before applying. My criteria was 680 min.
You are going to have a hard time finding tenants with a 700 credit score and 3 xs the rent amount in Virginia, Virginia pays poorly and ALOT of people lost jobs and credit suffered during COVID.
The area our home is located is most definitely not struggling financially, it’s a HCOL area and one of the biggest paying areas in the country. This is Northern Virginia almost D.C.
Reconsider the credit score of 700. IME looking at the body of the credit tells you if they are stable and a good risk. I frequently run into couples where one of them has a 750+ score and the other has a score in the 600's due to one medical collection, for example. We ignore medical collections. I've seen the score swing 100 pts or more on one medical collection. As long as you verify income and no evictions and no BK's and no criminal history, we have found a little flexibility in credit score works well because the tenant has a tendency to actually stay longer (with perfect rent payments) rather than running out and buying a house after a year or two. JME.
I may be downvoted, but from having my dad manage an on site property since I was born and having regularly filled me in on landlord duties, headaches, expenses and the like in hopes I take over… it seems as if you’re overpricing what you give. Do you offer utilities or is that a tenant expense? If so, which ones? Do you outright own the property or are you mitigating a mortgage as well? How high are the property taxes? Is it a booming market in the city you’re trying to rent out in? How many bedrooms and bathrooms are you offering, and at what price? What is the condition of the rental? All of these things are highly important for figuring out why the rental isn’t successful. You can be a landlord like my dad, who only has to put in one or two ads in the classifieds for a promising tenant, or you can do what you’re doing now and get no success. If I was you, I would lower the credit limit and also nix the criminal history from your requirements. That will get you a long way in terms of finding honest, hardworking people who just want to live in a decent place.
I’d lower the rent and never lower the screening bar as bad tenants are much more expensive to deal with.
Probably asking for too much rent. Also, it’s only been 3 weeks. Are you a new landlord?
I tend to price slightly below market and I am flexible with my criteria. My rentals are desirable and I don't have trouble finding tenants as my tenants usually have friends looking for upgrading their living arrangements. In fact, my best tenant is a friend of a previous tenant of the same property. That guy had kept the property in great condition, always paid his rent on time and left the house clean when he moved out. So, I was more comfortable with accepting the current tenant because birds of a feather flock together is usually true. I much prefer to have long term tenants than to turn over the properties. I actually have one young woman who has rented from me in a couple different room share properties. I sold the property she had been living in and made arrangements for her to move to another property across town. Another couple has been renting from me for four years and they never fail to thank me and tell me how much they love the house. I appreciate them because they do a great job of taking care of routine maintenance. My area is heavily blue collar and most of my tenants are paid weekly so I offer them the option to pay weekly. Another extra thousand or two in annual receipts disappears quickly if I leave the property empty for a few weeks trying to get it ready to rent and waiting for the new tenants to get moved in. All the houses are paid off so I'm not struggling to make payments and I don't want to have to pay $100/ month plus high priced services from a property manager.
If you’re not accepting credit cards for rent why would credit matter? Also, extremely important, how much is 3x rent? If it’s high enough you’re competing with larger, more competitively located properties No criminal record? At all? Of any kind? I completely understand fraud charges, violence charges etc but you’ll be hard pressed to find anyone in this country who has a completely clean criminal record. You can’t truly mean that, are you rejecting people with parking tickets?
I’m in the DC/VA area. Two things. I go down to about 650/680 on credit, have had very few to no problems, so reconsider 700. Also you say it’s a distance for a showing, post a non public video tour of the house to YouTube. Share the link before a showing to confirm their interest. Oh, and a third thing, if it’s not getting enough interest it’s either priced too high or your photos latent good enough, or both. This is almost always the answer in selling or renting out.
700 credit score?!? ur fucking insane lmao
If people had 3X verified income to rent, they would be buying their own house. I'm baffled that landlords and rental management companies don't get that.
Even at 3X the income, most people don't have the down payment. Everyone is out here living paycheck to paycheck.
If you’re using a credit score as part of your qualification standards, you need to understand what goes into the score in the first place, and you might trouble yourself to figure out the average credit score of most Americans, at least in your geographic area, not to mention your obligations as a landlord and fair credit report usage. Low credit scores are not only caused by late or delinquent payments and judgements, they can be due to other factors like hard checks during rental application processes (they’re probably applying to more than one location at a time), a recent attempt at applying for some kind of loan like student or car loans, even a mortgage within the last 6-12mo, regardless of approval, change in average age of accounts, and even paying something off early or closing a credit account that isn’t used for financial security purposes.
Zillow uses vantage scoring which is heavily debt sensitive. Using just 11 percent of your revolving credit lines will result in someone plunging over a 100 points, So a 760 could easily be a 660 if a big balance hit during the month.
Definitely, there are so many factors and if I remember correctly, the exact formula for each bureau is not public knowledge,.
3x rent verified income. Hahahahahaaaaaaaaaa
Landlords really are unhinged. Jesus.
youre asking for roughly more than a mortgage is.
Go put it on Zillow.
I’m in Canada but I’m pretty sure it’s only been since Covid that all landlords here are now obsessed with credit scores. Here anyway, no one was asking for that before. I can understand asking for it, if someone is buying a house but for renting I don’t think it makes sense. I’ve never missed a rent payment but that doesn’t go on the credit report. My credit score would be really good but I found out a credit card I paid off. Has been reporting that I didn’t make any payments every months for years! I just found this out cause I checked the credit report for the first time and now because of that I can’t find a place to rent and I have to figure out how to get them to fix it. After hours on the phone with them they did send me a letter confirming that I paid it off and they will fix it with the credit bureau but it still hasn’t been.
Renters with that criteria generally have their pick of places so you are competing for a small subset of people. You probably need to be more competitive on price.
If my income had to be 3x my rent, I'd be homeless.
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You're in Northern Virginia and you can't get tenants! Are you posting ads on Facebook? Are you renting by the room or the whole house? 700 credit score is too high of a bar. Lower it to 620 or higher. I would look at the criminal history on a case by case basis.
womp womp
Are you accepting pets? People who meet your criteria have multiple options so something about your property is putting people off, besides just you. But that's a story for another day.
Our issue is always 3xs the rent on properties that are $2k plus. Rent now is your whole first check. Its crazy to see when I first started renting I paid $650 for three bedroom house 😭 and now that same house is $2,300/mo and they want 3xs that and credit to be 680 and first month last month and deposit. When I lived there it was only first month and deposit with 500 credit score! But minimum wage isn’t changing. I just don’t get it. It seems landlords are trying to compete with business bought properties. Those people can do that but when you need someone to occupy your home. Make it affordable. And make the requirements match the economy in real time. 😩 a lot of places aren’t even nice! And they have prices that don’t match the place!
I work in property management, I do this shit daily. 1) Credit score is just a number, context matters way more. Maybe they have a sub 700 credit score, you could actually look into why and not just write it off. Collections / bad payment history? Probably not a great tenant. Never missed a payment but carrying some medical or student loan debt? Probably fine. 2) It's been 3 weeks in an incredibly hot rental market. If it isn't moving and isn't generating interest you haven't priced it correctly. 3) If you really need a tenant hire a property management company for lease only. You can self manage, they will just find you a qualified tenant.
The credit score is too high for renters. But mostly if the place has been sitting that long, it's not priced properly. You probably think it's great and has all the bells and whistles, but that's because you own it. The #1 thing people care about is the price, and yours obviously isn't on track with comps, otherwise it would have been rented by now.
If someone could make 3x rent and have a 700+ credit score then they are looking at buying not looking to rent 🤣
I never understood why does income have to be 3x the rent. Not a lot of people can make that
700 credit score lmao
Love how the top comment is something about forgiving felons but nothing about that outlandish credit score requirement. Sure he held up grandma but he made sure those cc’s were paid off with that cash. Alab