Dallas-Fort Worth Real Estate Investor Club

I'd like to hear opinions/practices about how much weight you put on an applicant's credit history and credit score when deciding whether to rent to them.

I've always been of the opinion that a large amount of unpaid debt likely indicates someone who's a bad money manager whether intentionally or not and therefore not a good risk. They can be the "nicest" person, but even nice people can be fiscally irresponsible.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Neil.  I agree.  

I mentioned "niceness" because my leasing agent said one particular applicant is a "very nice lady and would make me a good tenant." I, like you, do not put much weight on "niceness"--I've made that mistake before, also under pressure from a leasing agent. As far as I'm concerned, agents' opinions don't carry any weight. It's not their property, their business, or their money. Hope that clarifies. 

So what is your answer to the question? Do the "facts" of someone's credit history influence your decision to rent to them?

Thanks, Paula

Yes, it is extremally important. You don't want to be the next person that they are not paying.

I also use it to determine if additional deposit is needed as well if they will be required to pay more than last month.

Thanks to those of you who answered the question.

My rental criteria includes: Credit history must reflect no more than 25% of the total accounts reported to be 90 days past due or charged to collection in the past two years. Or proof of a minimum score of 600 is required.

Anyway, I rejected this person's application yesterday. There were other red flags too.

Yeah, I confess that I don't really follow that, because it's too hard to do the math. I pulled that statement from a TREC form years ago.  Time to update.

Thanks