I think most of us are seeing a decline in quality of applicants. This week has been a new low. I’ve never been so glad that I prescreen. I’ve have someone who told me that their income was none of my business and several people tell me that they didn’t have any income but would be getting jobs once they move in. None of those people will be getting a showing. Today was the worst. Another one with horrible credit and no income who says that she doesn’t even have the deposits , but might have them by the time she moves in. She’s not getting a response after letting me know ( in all caps) “YOU ARE NOT TO IGNORE THIS APPLICATION. I DESERVE THIS HOME!!!” As curious as I am to ask her how she figures that, I know better than to engage. Coincidentally, all of the above mentioned have eviction records .

I think private landlords like us are far more likely to attract these types of people. I don't think corporate apartments have to deal with this type of trash because these tenants know they won't get anywhere with them. So they seek out private landlords hoping we don't ask a lot of questions or do background checks.

What a red flag. I've had a bunch of no job applicants and no money for deposit but never that bad. My most recent applicant had a $900 for housing voucher. And said they didn't have a job but we're thinking about getting one.

When I asked, how are you going to pay your light bill? How are you gonna put gas in your vehicle? How are you going to buy toilet paper?When you need to go to the bathroom he could not answer.

Yes, the moratorium basically made tenants think that rent was optional, therefore having a job should be optional. Wasn't it the former speaker of the house that encouraged people to quit their jobs during Co-V1d and instead take up a hobby, art, music, etc?

Jason, did you ever think that he got the face tat after all the evictions?

He is just turning his life around, come on man. Give the guy a break. I mean it was only three evictions.

The prospective tenant pool is pretty thin -- has been getting worse all the time. Last unit we rented earlier this month took 90 inquiries, 5 applications before we found a qualified tenant.

We have our units set up on a lockbox system and the system software prescreens the applicants. A lot of them don't full go through the prescreen system, because they figure out pretty fast that we won't take them.

A lot of them are more than willing to rent the apartment sight unseen -- kind of a red flag -- they will take anything they can get.

I agree with others that the low life applicants are targeting small independent landlords, as they think we will take anyone as long as they are breathing and have $$.

Please except them up there so they don't move down here.

That's pretty brave and/or stupid to tell a perspective LL that it is none of their business.

Some view this as a decrease in application quality, I see it as a rise in tenant fraud industry. I indeed consider it a multiple billion dollar industry.

You are absolutely correct not to engage the crazy in our society. There seems to be so much of it too

"my income is none of your business" - Oh, I love that one!

I've had a few doozies just this week. One where as I was asking the woman what her monthly income was and her response was similar above only she wanted to know if she was getting the place because these are questions that should be on the application... you don't do applications?

I said "yes I do... I'm just asking pre-screening questions to see if you pre-qualify to view the property". She flipped out... couldn't understand why I would do that instead of just showing the property and handing her an application.

Another one I did show the property and THEN things changed... all of a sudden per his application, he "appeared" on earth around May, 2023 (per his residences that he wrote down... that's when he last moved). Typically I don't respond to anyone that does not complete the applications but he called (I didn't recognize the number right away) and he asked if the application was ok. I told him there were blanks and we discussed this in person... we do not process anything with blanks.

Long story short... he was in prison for 10 years (I looked him up while we were on the phone) and was just released in May, 2023. He then started talking about "redlining" and I advised him that he needed to pursue different apartments as we were no longer interested in moving forward with this application or him. (plus, he lied on the application so that would be a denial anyway).

The last one was a guy that called and he JUST was released from jail... living in a motel. He was serving 35 to LIFE... for "beating the heck out of two people".... want to know the lesson he learned? He should have ended their life instead of getting a ra pe charge and going to jail for 25 years.