Had two early twenties female applicants do the tour.

Roommate 1. Very attractive young lady, had done the prequal before but was waiting on her then boyfriend to fill out his form.

Which never happened back late May. This is the important part. Roommate 1 indicated that her credit score was over 600.

Roommate 2: Not so attractive young lady, lives with parents, no rental history, has high credit score but no savings and doesn't pay rent to her parents (??!! unheard of in my day)

Both went to college and have student loans as well as relatively late model cars along with car notes.

They were very pleasant on the tour as most applicants are.

Now the application comes rolling in:

Roommate 2 , who has no rental history and does not pay any bills other than her personal expenses, makes about 35K a year. Just under 3X.

I must say I had a bad vibe from Roommate 1 ever since looking at her social media. She makes about the same income as Roommate 2. She only has one rental record and that's her current place she's staying at with her boyfriend. Obviously, they are on the verge of breaking up.

It gets better. She's supposedly on the current lease until end of January. Which isn't a problem really because, as stated before, in tenant friendly areas that incentivize poor tenant behavior, it takes about 6 months to find a reasonably responsible applicant.

Then she says she can "just get out of the lease at any time" (red flag) And that the current landlord required no security deposit so joint and several is not an issue.

Turns out Roommate 1;s BF is paying all HER expenses. Rent receipts came back all in his name. HER credit score is in the mid 400s (I did not spend any money to find this out btw). I can probably understand why. Roommate 1 is as I stated before, very attractive and she probably has had a string of boyfriends doing her bidding by the looks of it.

Anyway, the only time wasted was the tour and the time it took to find all this out (probably 20 minutes total).

I did add an auxiliary question to my prequal. "Why is moving on the date you selected important to you?" This is actually a different question than "Why are you moving?" because I've found they usually spill the beans on this one. Roommate 2 actually wrote "So I can date on weekends" (I guess that's kind of hard living with your parents at age 23).

Your sixth sense is almost never wrong! NEXT!!

#2 sounds like a go so far?

Only go with your gut if your gut says no.

Do not go with your gut if your gut says yes. Even if your gut says yes, still do a careful screening. A conman can fool your gut.

WOW!

WHY on earth are you so concerned with how "attractive" someone is to you?!

And making assumptions about their social life, as you do,

DJ, When you are writing, you DESCRIBE the experience which was exactly what I did. In addition, being a landlord requires a serious amount of sleuthing and part time psycho analysis, as you well know. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's most likely a duck.

Roommate 1's attractiveness didn't enter into it. It was so that the reader could get an idea of what is going on. Much the way you would describe someone who smelled of tobacco smoke.

Objective, measurable was the credit score in the 400s and the rent receipts w/o her name on it.

You have a very high likelihood of failure trying to determine a professional liar from gut feel. Even the FBI quotes slightly better than 50% odds of detecting a lie during an interview after extensive training for the investigator.

Maple, if I got a bad tenant going against "my better judgement", it was because I didn't screen properly; I most likely relied on gut rather than a solid screening process. For the most part, I've corrected that.

My statement above wasn't a critique of your process but a general statement on using gut solely. You appear to have established criteria beyond gut.

I agree with GKARL because, and I know many of you have had this happen-

You are not in California, where people with almost nothing, or in heavy debt, had the "Gift of Gab". All custom B.S.

So my mother, a legal Secretary, UCLA graduate and people person always like to talk to the "Interesting" applicants.

So one time with a 1 bedroom vacant apartment in a building we own together, she did the renting while I did the repairs, remodeling and maintenance. She accepted 3 applicants over the weekend. After getting the first one on Saturday, she was going to call it quits. No need to show it anyone else. And my mother (and father) were pushing 70. I told her we have to have me applicants, so we could "choose" our best fit!

Her best gut feeling was for someone who had lots of debt, would paying it off over the next 10 years. Little savings and a Job working for a Friend. All red flags.

"Attractive": has steady income. Pays bills on time. Good rental history. Decent credit score.

"Unattractive": gets by on anything but money. Lets others pay. No credit history. Shakey income.

Dr. House says, "Everybody lies". I've had good tenants that I found a little white lie on and took a chance and it paid off, but I think you have to weigh all of the evidence.

I've had some that went against my better judgment (bad landlord reference) and it did cost me in the end more than it should have on turnover but they paid a fair rent for 4 years so then there's that.

I have someone interested who looks great on paper. Makes almost 10x rent, been at same stable job since 2019, car loan, credit card, all paid on time and manageable.

Told him he needed to fill out my application. He asked why and I told him it was standard procedure. We don't rely on Zillow applications alone.

I also told him that it all looked good, but we needed our app to move forward.

He replied that he would fill out the app soon.

That was five days ago. Now I am thinking that if he can't follow thru with that I don't need him in my place.

Two female co-tenant applicants has never worked out for me. One of the girls has a boyfriend who inserts himself into the living arrangement. Yeah, he won't tie himself down to a lease. Next, he leaves dirty clothes and dishes laying around. What really blows it apart is that the other roommate has to put some clothes on or a robe to use for the trip to the bathroom that she's paying to use unlike "Captain Save a Ho".

It has always been a "I want out of the Lease" situation.

Until I get an app, I don't invest too much time on them, especially if they have been too busy for my paperwork. I need to measure the results.

Maple,

Good post. Congrats on digging for truth.

Lately more and more of our apps are like this one. Unstable, awkward situations, unstable finances...

"They were very pleasant on the tour as most applicants are.

Now the application comes rolling in:"

THIS is why I don't waste my time on pre-quals or showings until we approve their written, PAID, application.

Gotta remind you and all readers - stating on the internet (which never goes away) that someone was "attractive" and the other was "less attractive" then denying them is "written proof" for a discrimination lawsuit, EVEN IF you have their full app.

The Fair Housing attorney will claim you were prejudiced against her from the start and looked for ways to deny her specifically.

We LLs can be sued for our words. Stay clean. Only speak and write within the legal boundaries.

Oregon beat me to it - only trust your gut when it's sensing trouble. Too many LLs use this phrase and trust the smooth liars. Good liars are REALLY good. They know how to play your emotions and "LL Greed Gland". They purposely seek out Mom&Pop LLs.

I'll add that I believe women have an extra sense about these things. If Wifey is unsure we hit PAUSE.

Thanks for the real life LL story!

BRAD

Haha, wow, this post was like reading a wild reality show plot twist in real time! It really sounds like Roommate 1 is living a “boyfriend-funded lifestyle” while playing fast and loose with leases. I’m honestly surprised she didn’t add, “I also take my coffee black, just like my credit score.”

But the kicker here has to be the "moving for weekend dating" excuse from Roommate 2. I mean, who knew a rental application could turn into a casual dating profile? She should’ve just added, “Looking for someone who *won’t* ask me for a credit report but will bring me brunch on Sundays." The whole thing makes me think maybe I should start adding *extra* personal questions on rental applications like, “If you could be any animal, what would you be and why?” because clearly, the vibes are the real determining factor here!

Anyway, it sounds like your sixth sense is working overtime—20 minutes well spent on dodging some serious red flags.

Haha, wow, this post was like reading a wild reality show plot twist in real time! It really sounds like Roommate 1 is living a “boyfriend-funded lifestyle” while playing fast and loose with leases. I’m honestly surprised she didn’t add, “I also take my coffee black, just like my credit score.”

But the kicker here has to be the "moving for weekend dating" excuse from Roommate 2. I mean, who knew a rental application could turn into a casual dating profile? She should’ve just added, “Looking for someone who *won’t* ask me for a credit report but will bring me brunch on Sundays." The whole thing makes me think maybe I should start adding *extra* personal questions on rental applications like, “If you could be any animal, what would you be and why?” because clearly, the vibes are the real determining factor here!

Anyway, it sounds like your sixth sense is working overtime—20 minutes well spent on dodging some serious red flags.