Renting to young families

[revelations]

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you should always do a credit check and yes imo it's made a major difference for me.

holy fuck yes - credit history is a HUGE deal

[firebane]

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holy fuck yes - credit history is a HUGE deal

Credit history means jack squat. I wouldn't care much about that.. you don't know the persons back history or what has happened in their life.

[revelations]

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Credit history means jack squat. I wouldn't care much about that.. you don't know the persons back history or what has happened in their life.

Yes and no, but if they have 7-10 years of shit credit you can have a good idea of what to expect.

If they had a divorce for eg. you might see 1-2 years of issues out of 7.

[MR2-3SGTE]

As a tenant, I have a pretty bad credit history due to making poor decisions when I was a broke student, and I haven't had any issues getting approved for apartments once I explain my story and the reason for the low score. Granted I do have more than enough income and great references, so I think most places are willing to overlook credit history if the overall package is fine. I've even applied to a couple places in Vancouver and haven't had a single rejection, despite their competitive rental market with 1% vacancy

[Mitsu3000gt]

I can't imagine credit plays much of a role. The fact that so many people can keep moving from rental to rental without paying for most of it and living free for months at a time suggests that enough people don't care about credit for it to matter, or doing something like that doesn't actually hurt your credit that much. These people also somehow find references too.

[msommers]

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I can't imagine credit plays much of a role. The fact that so many people can keep moving from rental to rental without paying for most of it and living free for months at a time suggests that enough people don't care about credit for it to matter, or doing something like that doesn't actually hurt your credit that much.

Perhaps it's naive of me, but I really do think the percentage of total renters doing that is incredibly low.

[revelations]

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I can't imagine credit plays much of a role. The fact that so many people can keep moving from rental to rental without paying for most of it and living free for months at a time suggests that enough people don't care about credit for it to matter, or doing something like that doesn't actually hurt your credit that much. These people also somehow find references too.

Landlords should be doing a check. Credit history is a great indicator of ones fiscal prudence.

I would rather rent to someone with long term good credit for less, than someone with bad credit for more.

Been renting 10 years, no issues.

[firebane]

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Landlords should be doing a check. Credit history is a great indicator of ones fiscal prudence.

I would rather rent to someone with long term good credit for less, than someone with bad credit for more.

Been renting 10 years, no issues.

And this is exactly why you could miss out on so many good tenants for... My credit isn't great but I'm a great tenant who looks after the property and will do minor maintenance if necessary.

I hate this whole "Credit rating means everything attitude when it comes to renting."

[sabad66]

didn't run a credit check on my renters but so far they've been good (e-transfer on the last day of the month like clockwork). Crossing fingers it doesn't come back to bite me in the ass lol

[Rocket1k78]

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With a longer-term tenant like that, have you raised the rent much or at all? In this rental climate these days, if I found a good tenant after a year, I'm pretty much too scared to raise anything in fear they'll leave!

She was there for just under 9 years and i didnt raise it a dime even though my condo fees kept going up. I bought that place a little over 15 years ago so my mortgage at the time was really low and when i started renting it out i was getting almost 3x my mortgage payment because of that crazy boom, that was nice until we had to go to court.

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Perhaps it's naive of me, but I really do think the percentage of total renters doing that is incredibly low.

I'd like to agree too even though i had 1 serial deadbeat lol.

[Rocket1k78]

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And this is exactly why you could miss out on so many good tenants for... My credit isn't great but I'm a great tenant who looks after the property and will do minor maintenance if necessary.

I hate this whole "Credit rating means everything attitude when it comes to renting."h

If i rented based on credit history i 100% would've missed out. I have 2 rentals and the one thats been with me the longest and most problem free is the one who told me straight up her credit wasn't the greatest. I was there on the weekend for showings and i had no idea she was repainting the family room for me.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Perhaps it's naive of me, but I really do think the percentage of total renters doing that is incredibly low.

They sure do seem to love my family's properties, and my coworker's properties, and my friends' properties haha. And we do vet them before hand, they use fraudulent references and their credit is (somehow) OK. We have one property we've had really good luck with, but the others is a revolving door of people refusing to pay and digging their heels in after a few months. It sometimes starts off slow, where they pay late, or we give them some leeway, etc. Then it just turns into non-payment. My brother's case was particularly odd recently where the tenant's personality also did a 180, and he is straight up refusing to pay without any signs it was going that way.

I think we're up to 4 court judgments now and haven't seen a cent.

[jwslam]

Have any landlords gone to visit where the new tenant is moving out of? It's indicative of their cleanliness and how they take care of the place.

I personally haven't done this yet.

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They sure do seem to love my family's properties, and my coworker's properties, and my friends' properties haha. And we do vet them before hand, they use fraudulent references and their credit is (somehow) OK. We have one property we've had really good luck with, but the others is a revolving door of people refusing to pay and digging their heels in after a few months. It sometimes starts off slow, where they pay late, or we give them some leeway, etc. Then it just turns into non-payment. My brother's case was particularly odd recently where the tenant's personality also did a 180, and he is straight up refusing to pay without any signs it was going that way.

I think we're up to 4 court judgments now and haven't seen a cent.

What area and what kind of properties are we talking about? It's a different market if we're talking about a 4 bedroom half-duplex in Whitehorn vs a new build Victoria Park 1BR.

[revelations]

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And this is exactly why you could miss out on so many good tenants for... My credit isn't great but I'm a great tenant who looks after the property and will do minor maintenance if necessary.

I hate this whole "Credit rating means everything attitude when it comes to renting."

Our entire personal banking financial and fiscal system RELIES on credit ratings and scores. Even car insurance companies do this now. Obviously the banks know the system works at predicting future behaviour.

And I have made exceptions for people with short term credit issues (but good past credit). Great tenants who were open and honest.

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Have any landlords gone to visit where the new tenant is moving out of? It's indicative of their cleanliness and how they take care of the place.

I personally haven't done this yet.


What area and what kind of properties are we talking about? It's a different market if we're talking about a 4 bedroom half-duplex in Whitehorn vs a new build Victoria Park 1BR.

I don't think so, but that's a good idea. We haven't had an major problems with damage, mostly just people taking advantage of our laws which allow people to squat for long periods of time.

2 of the properties are in Lake Chaparral, one is a condo in Sunnyside just North of the DT core, one is in the NW. With the exception of the one in Sunnyside they are all relatively standard, family sized homes (think 1800sq ft, attached double garage, etc.) I think rent is around $1800-2200/mo.

All the families that stop paying always have cable, internet, 2 or more cars, house full of furniture, lots of 'luxury' items, etc. The rent always is the only thing they can't seem to afford...

The other thing they do is try to find something incredibly minor wrong with the place that they never reported or complained about previously, and cite that as a reason for non-payment months later. When it's resolved, they find another, and another. As an example the guy in my brother's place right now is claiming that a nearby mechanical room is making noise and he can't sleep. The noise is not even audible inside the condo, and has been the same for the last several years where no issues were reported. Nevertheless, steps were taken to quiet it down and it's still a "problem".

I also don't have a clue what a judgement on someone's record does to them, if it's a major hassle for them or not. Doesn't seem to be a deterrent at all.

[R-Audi]

Ive never done a credit check in some 10+ years of renting out a condo in the beltline, and thankfully never had an issue. The one thing I check is the work reference.. that they have a decent job at a reliable company. (Try to stay away from people working at a bar etc)

[firebane]

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Our entire personal banking financial and fiscal system RELIES on credit ratings and scores. Even car insurance companies do this now. Obviously the banks know the system works at predicting future behaviour.

And I have made exceptions for people with short term credit issues (but good past credit). Great tenants who were open and honest.

I guess maybe some people are more concerned about their credit score than others (obviously), but I have no real need to worry about mine so I don't. If it affects how I get to rent a place then I just look elsewhere.

[Sugarphreak]

...

[Mitsu3000gt]

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What a nightmare, I feel bad for your brother

I just don't have the patience for these kinds of people.

I wonder if you can buy bed bugs online?

Indeed, it is quite awful. On top of that his wife is going through some serious health problems, he is crazy busy at a new job he started, and he was getting his CFA (trying to get that deferred). Basically the worst possible time for his tenant to do this, and the property manager can only do so much, there is a lot he still has to do himself. They are selling the condo immediately after this person is removed, it's just way too much stress.

[Xtrema]

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And this is exactly why you could miss out on so many good tenants for... My credit isn't great but I'm a great tenant who looks after the property and will do minor maintenance if necessary.

I hate this whole "Credit rating means everything attitude when it comes to renting."

That's what they all say tho.

If you can't pay your credit card on time, how likely am I going to get rent on time?

Bad credit is either not making enough $ or spending way too much. Neither is a good trait. ESPECIALLY if it's a family because I know I will be the last in priority when money is tight in that situation.