# Some interesting stas on tenant applications



## Causalien (Apr 4, 2009)

So I have begun seriously soliciting tenants and spreading my ads after getting the suite ready. That with the tests I've done in September, I now have some small, albeit interesting stats.

12 applicants. Some want the whole suite, some wants just a single room.

10 female, 5 with animals. All Caucasian
2 male. 1 Arabic 1 Asian.

The one Arabic man had his girlfriend do most of the communicating, even though it's him who's going to rent in the end.

So, I dealt with 11 woman out of 12. Not only is this skewed towards the female population, the racial mix is also severely out of whack with the actual distribution of the city's population.

What does this tells some of the more experienced landlords out there? Maybe it's because I am looking for tenants during the winter? I've never seen something like this in other cities. (I've also never looked for tenants in the winter)

Another interesting one is a single mother with two children and a pet. A big red flag right there. I mean, how does a single mother expect to pay for the rent with no job? I used to just ignore these, but decided to ask. Maybe our government is supporting her enough? If so, I'd consider renting to her.


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

it's your charm, Cause 

good thing you're getting that door up.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

I've rented apartments when I was between jobs before. I asked the question upfront if that and pets were issues for them. If so, moved on to the next. I can usually justify it when I've been jobless by simply pointing to my qualifications as assurance that I should be back on the workforce soon enough. Besides, most people go through unemployment from time to time and don't have to justify this to their LL if already housed when the unemployment hits. So it's good to get more details from each applicant if possible.


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

humble_pie said:


> it's your charm, Cause
> 
> good thing you're getting that door up.




lol


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## RoR (Jan 18, 2012)

The single Mom could easily have child support and alimony from an ex. You never know what the Dad does if she is unemployed. If you're wanting a long term tenant parents are often a good choice since they don't like to uproot their kids from the local school, depending on the kid's ages. 

Aren't you running a credit check? Or asking about employment on the application? I don't think it's unfair to know how your tenant is going to pay their rent.


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## Causalien (Apr 4, 2009)

I am just soliciting tenants at the moment with version 1 of the ads up. Prescreening before doing the actual credit check because you know, they cost money.

But to reply to humble. Yeah 50% of the intention is serious. I started expecting to have male tenants where some things won't be as big of a deal. With woman and their daughters involved. I think I might have to move out in the end when I am done with the rest of the house. 

I won't be surprised if an accidental pat on the daughter gets blown out of porportion in the future.


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## jamesbe (May 8, 2010)

I rented a place in September and to be honest I saw very similar results!

Just like house buying I guess most of the decisions are done by the women.


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## Causalien (Apr 4, 2009)

I can see that with families and couples. My puzzlement is more in the form of :"Where are the single ambitious young male in search of independence?" Have our society killed them off?


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## Mall Guy (Sep 14, 2011)

Causalien said:


> I can see that with families and couples. My puzzlement is more in the form of :"Where are the single ambitious young male in search of independence?" Have our society killed them off?


 . . . still living at home with their mama


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## Saniokca (Sep 5, 2009)

Causalien said:


> So, I dealt with 11 woman out of 12. Not only is this skewed towards the female population, the racial mix is also severely out of whack with the actual distribution of the city's population
> 
> Maybe it's because I am looking for tenants during the winter? I've never seen something like this in other cities. (I've also never looked for tenants in the winter).


How are white chicks and winter related to renting?

Being a stats guy, I couldn't resist... I have David Attenborough coming to mind right away saying something like this:

"After months of confinement underground, In the great arctic north, during the Canadian winter, while all other races are asleep, the Caucasian female comes out to nest. Not only she needs to attract the strongest male in the spring, but other predators will come out of hibernation and will pose great danger to its survival. Another great danger lies around the corner: the girlfriend of an similar species albeit a different origin lurks nearby and competes for the sweet place. This is the girlfriend of an arabic male, she too wants to secure the spot for her mate. The fight will be fierce."


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## Causalien (Apr 4, 2009)

I would really like the guys from Freakonomics to tackle this. I got even more data now and the stats don't lie. The trend is true for all races. There's simply, no man looking for a place to live at this moment.

Scenarios:
1 More woman are getting kicked out of their lease than man

2. Woman has more buying power

3. More breakups after the new years with the guy staying put and girls moving away.

4. Guys don't bother with "upgrading" their living environment as much and are not constantly looking until summer when the lease is up.


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## OptsyEagle (Nov 29, 2009)

Causalien said:


> I would really like the guys from Freakonomics to tackle this. I got even more data now and the stats don't lie. The trend is true for all races. There's simply, no man looking for a place to live at this moment.
> 
> Scenarios:
> 1 More woman are getting kicked out of their lease than man
> ...


5) Women enjoy looking at the design of different houses.

6) Men make up any excuse to avoid looking at the design of different houses.


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## Max (Apr 4, 2009)

Saniokca said:


> How are white chicks and winter related to renting?
> 
> Being a stats guy, I couldn't resist... I have David Attenborough coming to mind right away saying something like this:
> 
> "After months of confinement underground, In the great arctic north, during the Canadian winter, while all other races are asleep, the Caucasian female comes out to nest. Not only she needs to attract the strongest male in the spring, but other predators will come out of hibernation and will pose great danger to its survival. Another great danger lies around the corner: the girlfriend of an similar species albeit a different origin lurks nearby and competes for the sweet place. This is the girlfriend of an arabic male, she too wants to secure the spot for her mate. The fight will be fierce."


 This was pretty funny!


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## chaudi (Sep 10, 2009)

It doesn't mean anything, a survey is 12 people over 2 weeks. Well anyways it probably has to do with the unit your renting. Women prefer safer housing and nice bathrooms.


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## Saniokca (Sep 5, 2009)

chaudi said:


> It doesn't mean anything, a survey is 12 people over 2 weeks.


My point exactly


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## Berubeland (Sep 6, 2009)

Women seem to do 99% of the house shopping and the men come to inspect/approve their choices. 

Government assistance is probably the worst idea you've ever had. It is not a good idea to rent to people on assistance. They are not garnishable, often dysfunctional. Don't fall for the old guaranteed payment from the government, they can stop payment at any time. 

In fact last year I had a poor lady call me, a lady rented her place and gve her one month's rent as a deposit and the landlord spoke to the social worker on the phone that the social worker would issue the check for first month's rent. The landlord let the tenant move in. The check never came. It turns out that as soon as the tenant had got the key she called the worker and changed where the check was directed. The landlord got not one red cent until the lady was evicted.


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## Causalien (Apr 4, 2009)

I think the area might be it. I was previously in a student centric area.


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## Causalien (Apr 4, 2009)

Berube, I want to thank you for your blog. Just knowing what other landlords are also doing while screening emboldened me. I also got a lot of education on what certain reactions of applicants means.


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## Berubeland (Sep 6, 2009)

Thats the second compliment today


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## Causalien (Apr 4, 2009)

By the way, I couldn't find a search function on your blog and had to use Google to scan. 

Also, there seems to be a new Nigerian scam going on with this. The person will be from some foreign western country wanting to rent and move. They'd be non smoking and drink around 5 liters a year. They'd also be non-opinionated.

The reason I am mentioning this is because I received two emails of the same format in the same general direction from two different person in two different country.


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

It's not a new scam. We always get those, and find it worst when we use grisliest and kijiji. Not too bad on the rental pay sites though


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## Causalien (Apr 4, 2009)

Always? The last time I rented out to an international person was 2 years ago... and she was genuine. I must've gotten lucky.


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## Jungle (Feb 17, 2010)

I rented out to a guy from Norway who living here in a hotel. He lasted 2 months and went back home.. What a pain in the but. Paid his rent ok and he left the place in good shape. Just a hassle to get new tenants. 

He was also working for a property management company of all things..lol

I would never make any transaction with anyone overseas or out of state, I have to meet them in person on the driveway.

My plan is to replace the rental with a stock portfolio once the tenants pay the house off for me.


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## Plugging Along (Jan 3, 2011)

I meant that I always have at leat a few of these scams where some one wants to rent from out of town. They are usually a doctor who is working at the hospital. We are no where near the hospital, aNd here is usually something fishy.

I didn't mean that all out of towers are cons, just that I get at least scammer every vacancy. You can usually tell.


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## Causalien (Apr 4, 2009)

Ah, I thought you meant this script has been in use for a long time, because that'd mean I had a lot of imaginary applicants in the past. I immediately recognized it as a new version of the nigerian scam because I used to work with a company that get one scam from it hourly.

The renter's version of this, btw, are landlords off in africa doing charity and asking you to send the deposit to them while you check out the place through the windows.


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