Background Check/Deposit/Reserves

1. Always do a credit check
- anyone who refuses to pay for a credit check has bad credit
- no credit doesn't mean bad credit, some people pay cash for everything and don't use credit cards. this might even be a good thing if you are running lower end rental units. i have worked with many tenants who have working jobs and pay the rent in cash (usually it's not a good idea to collect large amounts of cash)
- do no accept a "credit report i just ran" if it is more than 2 weeks old.

2. Never let anyone move in ANYTHING before you have the deposit
- i recommend at least 1 month's rent for deposit. you can be flexible depending on the amount of the total rent but NEVER let anyone move in with a couple hundred dollars

3. Besides making sure the potential new tenant has a job, make sure they can show you they have $$$ in the bank. If the rent is $2000/mo, then it's not an unrealistic expectation for any tenant to have at least a few thousand extra dollars in their checking account. Anyone who refuses to show reserves should be avoided. I understand there are privacy issues some tenants might be uncomfortable with, but you already have all their personal information, and they are renting from YOU so unless they have $500,000 cash in their checking, there shouldn't be anything embarrassing about their account balance.