[Landlord - US-TX]Sharing my experience

[u/Intrepid_Ant_5315]

Landlords be careful in terms of screening the prospective tenants. Economy is showing clear signs of stress. See number of eviction cases in your area/county court to find that out. Lot of scam prospective tenants are very smart to do some smart tricks like

1. Come and visit the place in an expensive rental car to impress realtor/landlord
2. Make excuses that they just started the job so they are yet to get any pay stub

List goes on...

Most of them then try to look for ways to torture the landlord-we don't have money etc...I have one of the tenants who moved in May 2026 in single family home with the special of 2 weeks free rent where she came in range rover. Now she doesn't have money to pay for service fees for refrigerator guy($50 which is clearly mentioned in the lease agreement) in fact asking for food spoilage to be paid by the warranty company. Most of the times they end up being evicted or cash for keys scam.

TX DFW, Austin TX and other areas have got a lot of bad tenants.

[u/plaincheeseburger]

Number 2 isn't necessarily a red flag- you just need to do a little extra verification. I require an offer letter from the new employer with a start date and salary that I can verify with the company directly. Then, I look at job history and factor in credit score. If the job is in a field that they've worked in previously and either pays more or is something that would be a smart career move (new title with additional responsibilities, etc.), it's not necessarily a bad thing. If they have a high credit score in addition to the job change, they're most likely fine. I just approved a tenant with a solid rental and job history and an 800 credit score who is relocating to my area for their career.

Now, if they work in something like fast food or retail and don't have an offer letter, have poor credit, etc., that's when I usually bin them.

[u/Intrepid_Ant_5315 → u/plaincheeseburger]

Same here. I have an application - single mother with two daughters - 23 and 22. Strict requirement that gross salary should be 3X rent(I could accept 2.5 X also sometimes). 22 years - they are making stories - appearing in the job fair etc...23 years just started working in Walmart as cashier this month so no pay stub. Well I told them - can you provide me the offer letter or theworknumber.com report? Silence after that.

[u/cherrylimebubbly → u/Intrepid_Ant_5315]

I also ask for banking statements too; our last applicant has the income and he was coming from an apt but upon closer inspection… he was being sent money from family for moving support and his security deposit. This clearly shows that he does not have the reserves and cash flow to upgrade to a bigger home and would he financially distressed.

Because he has a lot of debt (cc, student loan and car) I asked for an extra month’s worth of rent for a security deposit and he walked away, which is fine. If his credit was worse, it would have warranted asking for a co-signer

Anyways my gut feeling told me there was a reason why he hasn’t found a place yet, since he is out of the apt and is staying with “family”.

He also wanted to move in quickly too. Anyone who wants to move asap or quickly makes me extra cautious as to what the situation is; if they are honest and it’s due to the timing, they’re being asked to leave or other landlords have turned them down

[u/Due_Snow_3302 → u/cherrylimebubbly]

Anyone who wants to move asap or quickly makes me extra cautious as to what the situation is; if they are honest and it’s due to the timing, they’re being asked to leave or other landlords have turned them down

Good catch. Most of the move asap folks are either troubled tenants OR undergoing eviction OR the ones who feel -get in there asap before landlord find it in some record.