Rental Tenant Screening: If You Have to Ask… You Shouldn’t

 

 

 “If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.”

JP Morgan

 

I recently had hernia surgery which went fine (thanks for asking!).  It lasted about 45 minutes, was pain-free (while I slept), and the recovery seems to be complete.  The process was smooth.

 

The issues I had were pre-procedure while trying to figure out how much it was going to cost.  I had a choice- I didn’t have to get the surgery per se.  I had some discomfort from time-to-time, but I think I had had the issue for around 25 years and there was no rush.  So I was trying to time it right with my insurance so I could pay the least amount out-of-pocket as possible.  My question was, “If I schedule the surgery next month, what would the approximate cost be?”

 

This was apparently a difficult question.  “Sir, it depends if the anesthesiologist is in-network or out-of-network.”  “Mr. Furniss, it is not the simple.  If the surgeon finds further issues while he’s in your body, it could take longer and cost more.”  I get it.  It’s not an exact science.  But if I ask my plumber how much it costs to fix my garbage disposal, he can give me a ballpark figure on what it usually costs.  I just wanted to know what to expect if the doctor didn’t discover that several of my nearby organs were failing.  You know, garden variety surgery cost figure stuff.  It was a painful process and I never got the answer I was looking for.

 

“If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.”  When the $32K bill came (before insurance), I guess the saying had some merit.

 

I bring up this story because I was thinking of some of the worst tenants we’ve ever had in our 20 years of being in the property management business.  Most of them had some “red flags” on their applications.  When we discussed what we found during our application screening process with the prospective tenants, they explained it in such a way that it was easy to sympathize.  And, usually, the rental house had been on the market for a while and the owner was anxious to get it filled (we were too!).  This led to approving some tenants far in the gray area.

 

These tenant approvals made me nervous in my stomach.  When we met to sign the lease, I found myself asking some variation of the same question:

 

“You’re going to be great tenants, right?”

 

Inevitably, the answer was always the same.  “Oh yeah, we’re going to be the best tenants you ever had!  We’re going to pay on time every month, you’ll see.  When you do your inspections, you’re going to think cleaning and lawn care people live here!  All we were looking for was someone to give us another chance.”

 

And, predictably, they were not the best tenants we ever had.

 

And I started to realize that if I ever felt I had to ask that question, it was the clearest sign that we shouldn’t approve the application.

 

I learned the hard way that JP Morgan was on to something that was applicable in the property management field.  “If you have to ask, you shouldn’t.”

 

Happy Landlording!