I think I answered my own question here, but I'll post anyway. Have an applicant for the rooming house with a recent 3rd degree misdemeanor charge for simple assault; he got into a fight with his girlfriend and is on probation. He answered no on the pre-screening but when confronted with the court record, said that "he inadvertently answered incorrectly" and that he "hopes this doesn't hurt his application". His girlfriend's name was on the court report (BTW PA Courts is very good for checking) and so I check her as well, even though she had nothing to do with his application. The girlfriend had a couple of pages of felony and misdemeanor charges with several of them being Conspiracy to Obtain Controlled Substances and Forgery. I have to deny him on two bases here: lying and his associations. If you lie down with dogs, you're going to have fleas. Do you guys ever deny due to applicants associations?

I've been having a spate of vacancies at the rooming house as I'm losing a couple of long term tenants and had to evict a non payer. I had an older lady who had been with me about a year and a half. This was the person who I arranged county assistance for to assist with cleaning and supplies. There was a tenant next door who got evicted from her apartment so she decided to move next door. She gets about 1200 in SSI and the rent for her new apartment is $ 800. Her room was costing $ 622 a month all inclusive. I'm not so sure how that's going to work. In a way I'm glad she's gone as she never got along with any of her suite mates. The last person she was battling with was also an older guy on the same floor who complained about her getting up in the middle of the night slamming her door deliberately to wake him up and not cleaning up after herself in the bathroom. Last month they got into it after she woke him up slamming the door at midnight going to the bathroom. He blocked her from getting out the bathroom and forced her to stay in there until 3:00 am according to her. She called the police saying she was going to file charges for harassment. He claimed he was going to do the same. Neither one of them filed anything and since she was leaving, I passed on putting him out as well. After she moved out, she got mad at me for not evicting him. However, she had issues with two other tenants before this guy appeared on the scene---in one instance, she threw her previous suite mates' shoes down the the stairs and one of the other tenants tells me that things are far quieter now she's gone as there are no more loud arguments. Although I was going to put the other guy out, I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and monitor him when I place the next person in the suite. He's neat and pays his rent like clockwork and has otherwise not been a problem--but we'll see how he does with his new suite mate.

The other long term rooming house tenant is moving into my recently purchased 6 unit building which is a couple of blocks from the rooming house. This is the widow with the eight year old daughter who was in a shelter before she took a room with me. She's also been there about a year and a half. She had been asking me if I had any apartment vacancies because she was tired of living with other people and one is coming up on December 1, so this worked out for her and me. I can always rent rooms quicker than apartments, particularly this time of year. This tenant is neat and works a couple of jobs, so the rent will be paid and she'll probably be a long-term renter. I had her update me with paystubs and her YTD earnings on her main job were nearly $ 40,000--this is someone renting a room. I was shocked. And she still has another part time gig at a convenience store. Her room rental rate is $ 322 bi-weekly. I'll put her in the apartment at $ 375 bi-weekly plus utilities. That works out to $ 812 a month versus $ 675 a month the exiting tenant was paying.

I've started assessing sharing fees equal to one-half of the weekly room rate. So a $ 150 room goes for $ 225 for a couple. I'm actively looking at ways to boost NOI. My vacancies have been higher than anticipated mainly because I had some dud tenants that I had to evict for non-payment or they left to avoid eviction. One theme for vetting the tenants to get longer term tenancies is job history. I find older people with short job tenures to be short timers however, younger people starting off in the work world are a better bet. I've got a couple of young guys for whom this is their first place and they seem to be fine. People with long job histories are the best. Also older folks on a fixed income are good. My average tenancy is around 6 months.

"Do you guys ever deny due to applicants associations?"

Heck, for those who contact me through Facebook Messenger I often deny (well, not continue further with them) based on what they post on their own facebook sites.

Just this weekend I had a much younger friend tell me the language that I find offensive (tossing the "n" and "b" (female dog)) words around is just common language on these sites.

I don't care. I don't want these folks as my tenants. And that includes those who post pictures of themselves that their grandmothers would be ashamed to see. For heavens sake; pretty much everyone has those body parts; for some of us they just hang a little lower. That doesn't mean you have to swing them out for the whole world to see.

Glad you enjoy the updates Deanna. I'm looking forward to DJ's as well. I'm learning on the job and have made my mistakes. I'm very fortunate to learn a lot from others here as well as drawing on my experience in business generally.

Hi GKARL,

I too thank you for posting and love your posts. To answer your question, yes I do look at who the applicant hangs around with. I remember many moons ago when I said to a tenant that so and so had expressed interest in one of my places and she said "that's Donde's girl who don't want her". Donde had an extensive record. Many times in the past and I'm sure it still happens now the female applicant might look ok but her boyfriend (who's going to be there very often) is horrible. I know you know that but for others just starting out... Lynda (TX) had some very nice comments about you and I agree. Keep up the good work and keep posting. I don't think I could deal with it. Good luck.

G,

Love your real life posts.

Just got a 5 bedroom house ready and was considering making it a rooming house...then I read you post.

Thanks!