In some states, LL's collecting deposit + 1st months rent and Last months rent is common,...but not in my state. One of the applicants I am considering has written on her application that she wants to pay the Deposit, 1st and Last month rent at Lease signing,..assuming I choose her over another applicant.

Does anyone here collect last month's rent at lease signing? Is there any downside to this? Any potential red flags here? In my 16 years of LLing, I have never asked any applicant for last months rent but here it being offered to me on silver platter.

In California we can collect any 2 out of the three:

First Month's rent,

Last month's rent,

or a security Deposit.

If an rental is unfurnished, we can collet 2 months rent as a deposit.

If an rental is furnished, we can collect 3 months rent as a deposit.

So I have a storage room filled with furniture that previous tenants left that I scooped up and saved.

So if an applicant is good as gold, long term job, excellent credit, I only charge them 1st month rent plus a deposit around $100 more than a months rent so they can't confuse a deposit with a last months rent.

If an applicant has marginal credit history and a week job,

then I put a piece a furniture in each room and call it furnished, collecting a first months rent plus a 3 month deposit.

And if someone is in between, credit wise, we work out a plan.

NE,

Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom !

Ken,

NE,

My P/Q notice is one best tools I have in my toolbox that I sometimes I have to use to train a new tenant who wants to 'test me' on how strict I am about how rent is supposed to paid. My P/Q notice is the equivalent of a parent using a leather belt to spank a child with in order to get that child to behave in the proper way. And any child (or tenant) that needs constant every month spanking, usually get booted out of the house.

NE,

If you had seen all of the apps I DQ'd, you would have made the same choice I did. In Class C/D hoods, you don't always get Mr. and Mrs. Perfect applicants. I tend to choose tenants based on how trainable they may be and the only way to determine that is being 'old school' and taking the time to talk to them in person (like an old fashioned job interview). I interview people on the phone first and then in person next.

Last night was this gay couple's 2nd interview and I made the decision to accept them. Plus, I prefer gay tenants because they have larger disposable incomes and they seem to have less drama issues compared to heterosexual couples with a bunch of whiney brats.

NE,

I have numerous heterosexual couples with children, so no I do not discriminate against heterosexuals with children. With every vacancy though, I do have to make choices and with those choices I can't please everyone.

I actually had 3 apps that met my min. requirements and I would have rented to all of 3 apps IF I had had 3 vacancies instead of just one.

Ne,

With all applicants, in addition to 3X income, I look for 'stability in their lives' and this gay couple had much more stability than anyone else. What I post here is only the tip of the iceberg (10%) and other 90% of the iceberg (business details) would only bore you.

Roy

You use the face to face as I do. A potential tenant can put any thing on a application.

I will bet they were clean, neat, punctual and well spoken. You can't put character issues on a form.

And obviously smart - by offering you the Deposit, 1st and Last month they were pushing your buttons.

Excellent choice.

I have never required first, last, and deposit. That's a heck of a lot of money at my price range. I just charge $300 more than the rent as a deposit, and then don't charge a separate pet deposit. (pet deposit is baked in and every tenant pays it, pet or not)

With well qualified tenants, last month's rent shouldn't cause any problems. With marginal tenants, or good tenants who lose jobs or have other bumps in their road of life, the issue is that they can tell you they are moving and to apply their last month's rent, but they have no intention of leaving, they are just stalling.

Oregon,

I keep hearing the "gotta meet them in person or I can't tell what they're like" as a reason NOT to do online applications.

I keep respectfully disagree and repeat what we've said here DOZENS of times before. I DO meet them... AFTER they've applied and look good on paper.

How so?

2. Minute. Home. Inspection.

THAT'S when I meet them. THAT's when I find out if they are clean, neat and well spoken. That's also when I find out what my house will look, sound, and SMELL like 4 week after move in.

May I borrow a line from your own post about "you can put anything on an application?" That's true. But, you can show up looking clean, neat, and well spoken, and your home can look, smell, and sound like a disaster, and you the land lord will never know that you've been hoodwinked.

When was the last time you met someone at your rental and found out they were a hoarder? Had 5 pit bulls? Let their cat's piss on the carpet? Let their ex-con "significant other" punch holes in the walls?

When I show up at their current home I learn all of that. Your process does not.

You're keen on meeting people. Good idea, so would you not meet them where they live and see the truth of how they do or don't care for their current home?

Btw, back to the post topic regarding last month's rent: no, I don't collect it. Unless there's a catch up clause in your lease that requires them to add enough annual to bring their last month pre-paid up to the amount of their current rent, then you're giving them a discount by default. No reason to do that, especially with rents going berserk like they are today!

Sid,

I am not going to do any 2-minute in-home inspection until Covid-19 is a thing of the past. AL has the highest percentage of unvaccinated people in the entire U.S. Our hospitals are over-flowing with Covid cases stemming from ignorant non-vaccinated AL residents. I am not going to walk inside their Covid infested homes.

And in the case of my gay couple, one lives 70 miles away and the other is 40 miles away. No, I am not going to hire a realtor to do a 2-minute inspection in each of those cities. I would be hiring a total stranger (realtor) to go inside the house of another total stranger (applicant) and in the AL/Covid Capitol of the world, it just ain't going to happen.

Yesterday I got a call from 2 of my tenants (man/wife) who have been bedridden sick with Covid for the last 2 weeks. The husband called to tell me they are beginning to re-cover. I asked if they had been vaccinated prior to getting sick and they said No,...but they are getting vaccinated as soon as they are well enough to leave the house. You could not pay me enough to walk in their house right now.

Congratulations !

"I am not going to do any 2-minute in-home inspection until Covid-19 is a thing of the past. AL has the highest percentage of unvaccinated people in the entire U.S. Our hospitals are over-flowing with Covid cases stemming from ignorant non-vaccinated AL residents"

Roy is definitely not from the south.

6x6,

Roy, would you please, explain how you will train them?

If they are a good paying tenants, take care of the property and follow the

lease, what training do they need?

You have spoke of their sexual preference, boobs, and you prefer them over whiny heterosexuals, but what about their credit history, rental history, utility payment history, character references?

Dave (MO)

Are you asking me to reveal all of my trade secrets right here for the entire world to read? As I told NE, I am only going to give you 10% here. If I gave out anymore here it would only give NE more excuses to drag me through the mud on everything I do. Life is too short for that nonsense.

NE,

I have one final question for you. Why does it matter to you that my old school ways of doing things (screening apps) are different than your more modern digital way of doing things?

My ways of doing things seems to create a conflict with you and I just want to know why?

NE,

Well, there’s that too. If your properties are unkept across the street, I might have to call codes. Anonymously. Repeatedly. Then when your frustrated and ready to sell, offer you $0.10 on the $1.

Or I could just refer all my DQ’d deadbeats to Ole’ Roy.

If I really wanted to take down the competition on the street, I could scout your good tenants with flyers from my business sent to their mailboxes every time I have a vacancy in my units. That is also ran to modern, integrative tech standard. 24 hour a day messaging system. Automated showings on THEIR schedule and at THEIR convenience. Without me having to be there breathing down their neck.

Like Poaching deer, just with tenants!!! Hahaha.

All is fair in love and real estate.

All methods I’ve learned here.

Or even better, if you operated across the street from me and I had a deadbeat come my way, I can call Old Roy and say hey don’t rent to this scum bag because they’re a scumbag. Or Roy, check this out, I found a new way of doing this for my screening. And you might say oh wow that’s awesome, maybe I can apply that to my process.

Or I can say, hey Roy, I think your tenants are dealing drugs out of that house because my tenant said they have people coming in they are 24 hours a day.

NE,

Roy I don't home inspections either. 99% of my tenants are not moving to one of my places from anywhere nearby, they are coming from out of state, often just out of college or retiring and downsizing. Or they are moving out of a roommate situation, or are couch-surfing because there ARE no rentals right now.

99.9% of our tenants keep their places better than we do. DH is in most of them a fair amount doing maintenance or whatever, and when I ask him how the place looked, he will often say, "I only wish our place looked as good!" (Neither of us are particularly fulfilled by housework...)