Future tenants must always be careful and watch out for scammers who just want to take their money. But landlords also need to take their own precautions to not be left without a tenant when they told every other applicant the place is no longer available and from messy people who can destroy their property.
There is a saying ‘better safe than sorry,’ but usually there is a line when it’s too much. A person online shared a photo of a list of requirements a tenant must meet to be able to rent a 1,568-square-foot (145 square meters) house in Georgia, USA and they look like someone’s buying the property and not renting it.
More info: imgur
Finding a place to live is hard as it is, but landlords tend to make the task even more difficult
Image credits: David Baron (not the actual photo)
The photo of the requirements was posted on imgur by the user Mostlywibbly alongside a Google Maps photo for reference as to how the house looks from the outside.
It seems that the landlord wanted to make sure that the person they would be renting the property to was a financially stable, working person with a car.
The first thing on the list was to have a 640 credit score. For those who aren’t familiar, a credit score shows how likely a person is to pay back credit. The number ranges from 300 to 850 and the higher the number, the bigger the chance the person will be able to pay off their debts, so 640 is kind of high.
An Imgur user shared a list of requirements this landlord has for a person to be able to apply
Image credits: Mostlywibbly
Image credits: Mostlywibbly
The first thing written in all caps indicates that it is very important that the future tenant have a good credit score
Image credits: Zillow
Then the landlord wanted the tenant to not only have a job, but have been in it for 2 years. Which presumably shows responsibility and stability, but the weird part is that this is not common practice with rent. Background checks and credit scores are required when people are buying homes as it is a long-term investment and commitment, but renting is a lot more simple.
On top of having a long-term job, the tenant must have a driver’s license and provide a copy of it with the application. So logically, anyone who doesn’t have a car automatically isn’t eligible to rent the house.
Image credits: Zillow
Image credits: Zillow
Image credits: Zillow
There are more copies of documents the landlord wanted to have. One of them is the tenant’s social security card, which is understandable as it is used for identification. Another thing that the landlord asked to provide were pay stubs for the last 3 months, and the tenant must be earning $6,000 a month, which is $72,000 yearly.
According to the information on World Data, the average yearly income in the US for full-time employees in 2020 was $69,392 or around $5,783. So the landlord expects their tenants to earn a little bit more than the national average.
The landlord wanted the person to have a stable job of 2 years, a car and a salary of at least $6,000 a month
The landlord wanted not only to see the monthly payments but also the copies of form 1040, which is the U.S. Individual Tax Return form or form 1099 which shows non-employment income.
To be able to apply for this house, a person must pay a $75 application fee which is non-refundable. The rent is $2,200 and the deposit is one month’s payment. So in total it should be $4,400, but for some reason the paper states that the total move-in amount is $6,600, which is a whole month’s rent more.
They also wanted to see forms 1040 or 1099 submitted with the application
Many people in the comments found it suspicious that there is an application fee and they advised to never even look at such listings because it is a scam to lure money from people. They also noticed that the total move-in amount was quite a bit bigger than it should be if you do the math correctly.
People in the comments were also pointing out that the place was not worth $2,200 a month because it is in Riverdale, which is a small city with a population of 15,129 people and it is 12 miles (19 km) south of downtown Atlanta, the capital of the state of Georgia.
Many people pointed out how ridiculous those requirements are
First of all, the math didn't make sense as the total move-in amount didn't match up with the prices of the first month and security deposit
The listing of this property is still visible on Zillow even though the house isn’t up for sale or for rent. It is hard to say if the landlord just changed their mind or there was a person who moved in, but there are a lot of things that you can see in the description.
First of all, it was built in 1972 and first sold in 1995 for $69,900. Zillow estimates that now it has a value of $203,800. The last time the property was sold was in 2008 for $40,000. After that, it was listed for rent only on February 2nd of this year. The price was $2,200 in the papers, as Mostlywibbly had said, but the same day, it was lowered to $2,000. Then it was lowered again just two days later to $1,800 but removed the same day.
They also immediately were warded off by the application fee as it is just easy money for the companies
We can only guess what prompted the landlord to change the price so quickly and remove the listing only after 2 days it was put up. Maybe it was actually rented out, because it is a 3-bedroom house with 2 bathrooms that has a fireplace and hardwood floor.
The photos show that it probably was renovated, but looking at them closer, it is evidence that the job was done sloppily and it could be that applicants pointed it out, so the landlord decided to fix the problems to be able to ask for a bigger rent price. It’s up for speculation but it is definitely suspicious.
Finally, they suggested that it might be a scam and that landlords are greedy people in general
What do you think of the requirements to be able to apply for the rent of this property? Do you think it is common for landlords to ask for these things and do you think that the price is fair for what the tenant would be getting? Let us know your opinion in the comments!