Pets/Poor Credit---- In Rental Units
Good evening folks. I just wanted to get some feedback on whether you rent to tenants with pets or not. If you do, are you open to all pets? Are you selective? Do you allow dogs and not cats? Or vice versa? I have a vacant unit and I used to be much more flexible, but now I decided I dont want to rent to any pets at all - had some bad experiences. I also took some chances with people with not so good credit and got screwed a few times. So now that I decided to require "good" credit and not allow pets, it seems to pretty much rule out most folks. Everyone that seems interested in my unit either has pets, or credit issues. I have the unit in craigslist for several weeks now and not getting much interest at all. I am wondering if my expectations are unrealistic. My unit is a decent unit in a pretty good area in the 650 per month range, which is reasonable rent for a 2bed 1 1/2 bath unit. What do you all think? Hope I provided enough info. A part of me is wondering if its just that people shopping in this range usually have poor credit or they would just buy a nice home instead. You can pretty much get a really nice townhome 3/2 for 110-120k around here. So with a small down payment you can probably pay a mortgage for a bit more than you would rent one of my units.....thoughts anyone?
It may be because its a duplex and in a court with all multi-units. Some people dont want to live on a street thats mostly renters. I will have to wait and see for a bit. It just seems that anyone who ever has responded to my ads on craigslist has credit issues. I have had a couple of responses, but they ask whether i would consider them, but they have bad credit. Maybe i should try and advertise somewhere else. It seems like the market for that price range consists of people who dont have alot of choices. Alot of times I have given people a chance.....just had a recent experience with two of my tenants and I dont want to deal with that anymore.
Can you post your craigslist ad?
I have a no pet rule for all my rentals. I also have a no smokers rule. Yes, I may lose a few otherwise acceptable applicants but in the long run I believe I come out ahead in total maintenance and repair costs by not allowing pets or smokers.
Thanks Newkid - good tip. I am not doing alot of advertising....guess I probably should. Thanks!
I take pets, and I will raise the deposit because of that. It can lead to extra trouble, no doubt, but so many people have pets you are really narrowing your pool of renters. Also, you have to look at the market. If it is a hot rental market-no pets/good credit. If its weak then you may want to ease up.
Another thought on bad credit.....There will be more renters out there in the near future because of all the foreclosures, and they are all going to have bad credit. Are you not renting to any of them? Again, I think you may have to base it on regional factors.
Good luck. [ Edited by bnwbaron on Date 02/17/2008 ]