Lastly, make sure you are doing a very thorough screening. If at any time, something doesn’t smell right, do not rent to them.

(I’ll be using the same numbers from my original post so some numbers are skipped as I feel no need to comment on them):

4. I’ve always given proper notice to leave a place. I’ve lived mostly in residential hotels (zero notice required) and month-to-month tenancies (30 days required). The few times I’ve been stuck on a lease, I’ve somehow stuck it out. I’m on a lease now but I’m in a *good* situation, no desire to leave.

5. I wouldn’t even try to rent at $650/mo. + $150/mo. utilities on my income. My current place is $449/mo. + $14-70/mo. utilities depending on the season, and I have a hard time but I’m making it. However, a rigid 3 times rule would limit me to $333/mo. (at the time I wrote the original; $354/mo. now). That would leave me no option but a rooming house, exactly the kind of place where I have neighbour problems. The problems I’ve had with neighbours weren’t the kind that could be “worked out” because the neighbours hated and harassed me for who I am intrinsically. I did my best to get along with them. I find the only feasible places for me to live are where people mind their own business. It seems the only way to get that is a self-contained apartment with its own kitchen and bath because shared facilities force “social” interaction.

6. I admit I have problems in this area, but it’s not that I’m *deliberately* nasty, I just don’t have a “clean” mentality. I’m just “wired differently” in this regard. “Keeping up” a place
day to day is just too taxing for me (the best metaphor would be how someone who doesn’t exercise would view doing a daily gym workout). That said, I intellectually understand that most of society cares and I *try* to accommodate that the best I can, but in practice that usually means when I leave.

7. I don’t have any illegal sources of income. The reason I put (legal) in parentheses is that I understand there are legitimate reasons to discriminate on the basis of illegal income. For example, you probably don’t want to rent to a drug dealer. Of course there may be other types of “illegal” income (in the sense of “unofficial” or “undeclared”, not necessarily where the activity producing the income is inherently criminal or disruptive) a tenant might have… which is another reason why the “three times rule” bothers me.

Some other comments based on comments other people have made:

A. What if someone has an eviction or something else bad but it was a couple of places back, and they did everything right at their last residence? Should that be taken into account?

B. What if the circumstances that caused the past problems have changed? For example, someone who had trouble paying rent due to low income in the past but recently got a major increase in their income? Or someone who caused trouble due to drugs or alcohol who is now clean and sober?

3. As to criminal pasts, what if it was long ago and appears to not be a current pattern? I know someone who was denied an apartment because they stole a car *14 years ago* even though they’ve had no trouble since. Is that reasonable?

I’ll also throw in there, because I didn’t see it in the article. Screening tenants is vitally important. An applicant can lie all the way to sunset on their application and seem nice as can be. They can say they have always paid their bills on time all their life and they are a perfect citizen. But their screening reports may tell a different story. Always screen all adults moving in and if the screening results differ from the application they filled in, it’s a HUGE red flag.

4. Allow tenants to make any repair for under 25 dollars (or 50 or 100 depending on the tenant) to your property and deduct it from the rent with a receipt. Have heard that people will call you, as the landlord, for a light bulb burnt out. Having a policy like this for small items saves you time.

I hope these tips help you and your readers.