We placed an ad on KSL, but only had one couple come to see it last weekend...and no calls since then! The couple is very nice, and they have 3 little kids. But there's one problem, they have terrible credit! However, we called their current landlord, who said they were great, and paid their rent on time every month. But...next problem--their current rent is $350 less than what we're charging. So I called the tenant (Desiree) up last night and told her the situation. I said that if they are having a hard time paying their bills already (and they weren't sure if they could pay the $1000 deposit), that it seemed to us unlikely they would have an extra $350 a month in their budget to pay the increased rent. She said she had just recently started working more hours. She said they needed a bigger place for their growing family, but after moving in they were going to fix up their credit and try to eventually buy a place. I told her about our situation of getting in over our heads with payments when we bought the house, and suggested that they might find themselves in a similar situation if they moved in, making it much more difficult to pay down their debt and rebuild their credit.
I thought I handled the situation very well. I didn't have a lecturing attitude...it was more of an empathy and concern attitude. I focused on OUR struggles paying our mortgage when we first moved in, (and I mentioned our current situation living in a small 750 sq ft apartment with 3 kids). I told her that we would put them on hold, and suggested that she spend another weekend looking at other places, and we would (hopefully) look at other applicants; then after the weekend we would get back with her, and if they were still set on our place, we might consider giving them a chance.
My conversation with her made me think of a conversation a boss might have with a difficult employee, in which, instead of firing the employee, they talk about how the employee is "enjoying" his (or her) work. It seems that employees who are performing poorly are often unhappy with their job. The boss helps the employee figure out that he might be happier elsewhere, and the employee decides to quit. This way the employee doesn't feel like he's being kicked out, but that he's making the decision to leave to find a better job.
Hopefully Desiree felt that I was not flat out rejecting her and her family, but that out of concern for her and her family, I was helping her realize that they might be better off in a smaller less expensive place.
Now we just need to find other renters who are just as excited about our place, but who can afford to make the rent payment!
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