what are your experience with applicants that seem 'perfect' (good income, perfect credit score)?

just said no to a 'perfect' applicant. The couple have good income and perfect credit scores over 800. The record is as clean as one can get. they are like ME!

After approval and before lease signing, they started asking numerous things including why previous tenant left and wanting to interview landlord etc.

Among other things, not having good feeling and potential PITA. Told them to find another landlord to work with.

Just like it's normal to ask a seller, "Why are you selling?" or a tenant "Why do you want to move?" it's normal to ask "Why did the last guy move?"

The answer is usually innocuous things like, "He got his hours cut and moved to be in the town where his new job was" or "She got married, and they combined households, and so they moved to one of my bigger houses" or "He had to go home to take care of his ailing parents" or whatever.

If they're spending $x/mo with a high-rise downtown condo, you know what you're getting, and who you're getting it from. If you're spending $x/mo to rent a sfh from a mom-and-pop who you don't know from Adam--- it's reassuring to chat with them and identify them as people, not scammers.

People who are affluent and are moving because they want to are able to decide who they want to do business with, rather than doing business with anyone who will take them.

Perfect and PITA are antonyms. You can’t be both. A reasonable amount of questioning of why the previous tenants left “they moved to Toronto” vs.”they got tired of the gang violence on the street” is legit. So is some questioning of the landlord, do they have plans to sell the units soon, etc.

But if you feel that they are subtly bullying you, or that they feel that they are too good for the unit, or if they feel they need to tel you how to run your rental empire, then I agree...pass.

If someone were to ask me about a departing tenant I would just say I can't answer that to protect their privacy.

As for wanting t talk to the LL, I don't understand why some of the LL here hide. When I had a PM I still had a direct connection w/ tenants. That's how I found out the PM was not servicing my tenants well. If the above tenants are renting an A or B property where is the risk in making a connection?

This may sound strange but I don't want the "perfect" tenant. Although I don't mind them asking me questions on why the previous tenant left.

I recently put out smallest (2 bedroom, 1 bad, under 900 square foot), cheapest ($550) house up for rent. Applicants came out of the woodwork for this one and like roaches, most of them should have remained there. What a tenant pool when one has such a cheap place! This could drive a landlord to begin drinking heavily.

At any rate, our income requirements are a monthly income of at least three times the rent. For that house this would be $1650 a month. One guy who called told me he made $1600 a WEEK as a chemical engineer. I thought I heard him incorrectly and asked him to repeat this. Yep; income was $1600 a week.

I asked him why someone who made this amount was interested in a $550 a month rental. He said he wanted to rent a cheap place for a year, allowing him to save up his money so he could buy a nice house.

In other words, renting my place was cheaper for him than staying in a hotel for a year.

This meant one year from now I'd be back to dealing with all the two legged roaches trying to rerent the place.

I passed on this guy.

Gail

What's wrong with them asking a few questions? They're about to make a big commitment. Many folks are scared these days because of all the scammer stories.

What's wrong with telling them why someone moved? I don't have many move outs but have no issues explaining if asked, of the last four, one bought a house, one had a job relocation out of state and another moved into one of my bigger houses and the fourth got married and her new husband owned his own house. The last one had been with me eight years and rented two different houses from me....I was happy to give her as a landlord reference if needed.

People with high income and good credit got that way by being careful and doing their research.

Since I do my own managing, they are talking to the landlord.

Almost all my tenants move out because they bought a house, which makes it easy to answer that question. Other than that, I don't give information about prior tenants, except maybe to repeat the thing that they enjoyed most about the house if it was something unique, like the tenant whow went fishing every evening in the river that was two houses away.