Showed nice townhouse to a bf and gf yesterday

They agreed to meet today to fill out an application since there was already another person there filling out an application.

We were suppose to meet today (Monday). He called and said not today but let's meet on Friday.. Says he has money for deposit and first month's rent. I get a call from Social Services saying that they will give him the needed money for move in. She is not currently working and he wants her to stay home with the kids. He is self employed and says that he works 102 hours a Week.. So far no application filled out. Anxious to get approval since they are in a hotel ($124 a day). Says they have been at the hotel 4 months. Called me 4 times within 2 minutes today when I told him husband was unable to come to phone. Refused to discuss what ever he called about with me.

Waving cash? Had one applicant tell me that he had the cash for first month's rent and the deposit to move in because he had stopped paying his car loan for a few months . . . LOL Pass!

No, no, no. One of my criteria for renting is that they're decent human beings. If he refuses to talk to the female part of the partnership, that's a DQ right there. Wants to be in control, wants someone else to pay their rent, wants to live a lifestyle that they haven't earned, wants you to accommodate their schedule...need I go on?

melinda,

THIS THIS THIS is why we START with the full app, NOT waste my time on the phone or with a showing until we know they can qualify.

All this drama and taking up your time would not be happening if you start with the app.

Dec: we approved *1* out of 30 apps. That would have been a mountain of showings had we not started with the apps.

I talked to a 450 door LL today who said his screening was the same.

NFW!!!!

Please.....PLEASE! Please.... don't take them.

Next....please please please write down your screening criteria. Something along the lines of these will save you hours, days, and weeks out of your life running around trying to appease deadbeats and the patently unqualified:

1) Minimum income is 3x the rent from a GARNISHEABLE source. You live in MD, which may not allow garnishment, in which case you simply make sure they have an AWESOME job that they had to WORK HARD to get and won't leave at the drop of a hat when times get tough.

2) MUST HAVE at least 2 positive land lord references: current and previous. No 1st timers, college kids (unless they have a rock solid co-signer), or "living at home/with friends" (i.e. couch surfing).

3) Reasonably clean background. Many states have free online court databases. Get all prospects' first, middle and last names so you can run a quick free search. Also use this info to check them out on social media. One trick I learned early on is offer them $5 off the application fee if they "Friend" our throw away facebook account. That way we don't have to track them down AND we get to see the "real" them....all their glorious political ramblings, ANTIFA rallies, keg parties, pets, etc.

4) Absolutely no past evictions. Period. I used to "give people a second chance." After that blew up in my face several times, I now let OTHER people give them second chances.

Now you may wonder how to get all this information. Very easy! Get yourself a website that costs $8 month at Weebly.com (or there are some free ones) and set up a basic pre-screening form that anyone who wants to tour must fill out. Have them send you that along with a picture of their Govt photo ID, which can be emailed to you or texted. Either way works.

I know, I know, I know....soooooo muuuuuch woooork. Not really. You set it up ONCE, and it works for you like your own private investigator, digging out details, finding out "do I even want to spend 3 seconds on this prospect?"

Not sure how to build a website? Hire a teenager for a crisp $100 bill and it'll be done in one afternoon and you'll be enjoying the fruits of a well-organized pre-screening system.

I typically get 100+ responses for every vacancy. With over 50 properties, I'd be running around like crazy just trying to keep up with the looky-loos and tire-kickers. Burning up hundreds of $$$ of gas each month and putting thousands of miles on my car and missing entire evenings and weekends with my family....all so I could get stood up half the time and most of the rest of the time I find out the people are living in hotels with no jobs....but "someone" will give them first month's rent and deposit, after which I would never see another dime from anyone and I'd have to evict and get a torn up house back.

Ken,

I agree with others in the respect that you should pass. These people want everything for nothing and if you accept them the rental payments will not continue.

I have learned my lesson as I had a young homeless woman, said she had a child. Well, her child was adopted out, then she had twins, who were also adopted out and viola, she ended up with a brand new car.

Well, it took me months to get her out with no rental payments. Since Nov. 20, 2021 I have tried to find her with no success as she changed her phone number, etc.

A big time saver is not meeting with them to complete the application. First off, they won't have all of their information with them and secondly, I don't want to sit around watching them fill it out. That infringes on my time and they can do all of that on their own. Setting up a paperless sort of process for that has removed many headaches.

Too many red flags,next time he calls tell