After complaining about how much hassle it is the fill an apartment vacancy, things happened quickly today and I have two prospects:

1) A divorcee with a 12 year old and a 3 year old. She meets my income requirements and works part-time with one of my CPA firm clients (a restaurant) along with her full time job which is near my building. References check out. Has a fair credit score. She wants to come in and sign the lease on Thursday.

2) A student. This particular building is near a college and is in a neighborhood in transition. Although the college is in walking distance, the students have never rented on my block, but things have been changing. Father calls up for kid today and is in a hurry to see the place. Per the pre-screen, family makes about 300k but they live in NJ. Kid going into his senior year and may go to grad school (says he wants to be a CPA which carries an 150 credit hour requirement, so he'll need another year to meet that), so I may get two years out of him. It could open an opportunity to make turn this building into student housing. That has upsides and downsides. Father wants me to send him an application and is prepared to move quickly.

Earlier today, I got a call from a research associate at this same college who wants to see the apartment. I had scheduled an open house for those who passed the pre-screen this Sunday and I invited her along with 4 others as I was unsure what the divorcee was going to do. She was the only decent prospect I had and all of the sudden, things changed today

Which one? Or should I hold out to get a better situation than either of these two?

My gut says # 1 - simple , quick, good references. And may not move too soon, to keep the kids in same school (if it's a good district?)

# 2 you'll have to take more time to checkout either Dad's finances and obligations as co-signer, or Student's financial aid / income.

#1 is a hard worker - single mom, 2 kids, 2 jobs. Assuming she has a good support network to juggle all that.

#2 It bothers me that the father is hunting for his son. I understand as a parent needing to talk to landlord about co-signing or wanting to see apartment, but a kid in his senior year should be doing the looking and contacting the landlord. Depending on the student, undergrads tend to party more than graduate students. I would want to meet the student and explain the expectations and let them know if it doesn’t work for them don’t apply.

I do almost exclusively student rentals. I don’t do a co-signer, but I do require either prepayment at least by the semester or auto-pay.

I require a copy of their student financial aid award letter. If the family filled out the FAFSA, it will say the amount of the expected family contribution, and provide a way to meet that. So, if the student is Pell eligible, I know that they have access to enough student financial aid to pay the bills, and that they should probably pay by the semester. If all that is available is a parent plus loan, I know the parents likely have decent incomes to cover most expenses. If there are merit scholarships on the SFA award, they are generally driven to keep them, to avoid debt. If the family doesn’t fill out a FAFSA, then I need to either run a credit check on parents or have prepayment of the YEAR. I remind students that I do report debts to credit agencies and that the feds check with me regarding security clearance.

I also want a copy of a transcript, unofficial is fine, and they get that from their student info system. I look at the GPA to make sure the student is making good grades and will stick around and is not likely to party.

Students move often for some crazy reason. My leases start in June, at the start of the summer, and end a week after graduation in May.

Totally normal for a parent to be involved, even looking for available units. Today’s parents are more involved from a distance. I like to partner with the parent to make sure the bills are paid and the home is well kept. My favs are the students moving straight from the dorm, when I’m the first landlord. I get to train them.

It is a different market, though.

Isn't this a one bedroom? The mom and kids sound like maybe they are qualified. Low income people expect to live crowded. How will this affect your other tenants?

The student hasn't really applied yet. Daddy might decide he doesn't like the apartment if the neighborhood is rough. It's odd for a student to need a new place to live in May.

But if it all checks out with the student, he might be OK. He's survived college up to his senior year in a math field of study, he is probably not an idiot party boy

I think I'm going stay in the "workforce housing" business and go with # 1. The kids' grandmother lives locally and watches the kids while she's at work. My client, who she works PT for, gives her a glowing review as one of their hardest workers. I'd tend to agree that she may move up at some point though as she's a striver. I'll probably get a couple of years out of her.

If I go with student housing, it would make sense to convert the entire building to that and add some amenities like washers and dryers. I have one apartment that I have set up as three rooms that are rented to regular working people and then two other apartments and a storefront. I could convert the other apartments to rooms and set up the washer and dryers in one unit for the entire building. Adding the amenities would make things more competitive with other student housing and promote longer term tenancies. Alternatively, I could leave the building as is and just market to graduate students and research associates; both of whom tend to not like communal living. As I mentioned, up to now the students haven't been renting on my block, but over the past few years there's been a lot of upscale development in the immediate area, so things are changing although I'd still class my area as C+ at this point.