Reply to Prospective Tenant Has Fishy Motive for renting..?

Prospective Tenant Has Fishy Motive for renting..? (Score: 1) by Erica on Monday, June 11, 2012 @23:57

Hello,

I am a landlord and I'm in the process of screening tenants for my apartment that will become vacant in a few weeks (my tenant was transferred by her job to another county).My ad has been on CL for about a month now and I have shown the apartment to about 5 people who appeared to fit my criteria but failed to pay an application fee (thus, they weren't that interested in renting my unit).

Yesterday I met with a young woman who seemed promising. She arrived on time, neatly dressed, with a copy of her credit report. She has a good job in the field of law enforcement (not FBI), a great FICO (over 700), decent income, except for 1 thing. She said the reason she is moving is because her current landlord raised her rent from $1400/month to $1625/month (effective July 1st, when her lease is up for renewal).

She told me where she lives, and I know that in her neighborhood, rents average $1200-1500/month, so I find it rather strange that her LL raised her rent by that much after only 2 years. She claims she is "never home because I work long hours", but I can't help but feel that maybe she isn't punctual with her rent which is why her former LL raised the rent by that much (maybe to kick her out for whatever reason?).

I have not received her references yet, but if she provides a completed application with references, should I accept her? When she asked me about the lease having a 3 day or 7 day "grace period for paying rent", I also got a red flag going on inside my head..but maybe I am overreacting?

What do you guys think? Should I accept her?

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