Purple Martian....AVOIDED!!!!

Our local Real estate mentor calls the worst tenants…purple martians.
Their thinking processes are so !@#$ed up that they must be from a differetnt planet.

So, I’ve posted an available property on Craigslist and await the invasion.

Today I receive an email from a realtor asking me to call him about submitting an application for my rental.

I shoot him a message back with my app and tell him I am showing the property at 11am tomorrow and can pick up the app and app fees there.

An hour later I receive: “Please review my client application and let me know if you like him and he can moved asap.”

Attached are the filled out app, credit report, checks written to tenant from his own company account marked salary in the comments field. Checks are non-sequential drawn on a Washington Mutual account. (bank bought out by Chase in 2007/2008.) Also has provided DBA filed with the county for his company in 2005 and statements from medicare showing payments to him for 10k/month. His Dba is an ambulance company.

So I ask the realtor if he is holding the application fees for me and can he send me two months of bank statements.

His reply…"No. He does not have a bank account at this time. It is due to IRS dispute on taxes. "

My reply: So what are the checks he wrote drawn on?

No response.

Bye Bye!

Note, purple martians are always in a hurry to move in.
This alone is almost enough reason to reject one.
But dig deep enough and you see their antenna sticking up under the baseball cap.
On his credit report is also failure to pay child support.

I’ve seen something on REIclub before that’s also a red flag for me. It’s the people who offer to pay ahead - usually several months at a time. In my experience, the people who say they’re going to pay ahead are ones that can’t even pay on time. I think that they think in their minds I must like how it sounds when they say they’re going to get their tax return or some settlement and pay their rent 6-12 months ahead. No! I’d rather them just perform the contract as agreed. That’s all…nothing more.
The funniest line in your post is about him not having a bank account “at this time” due to the IRS dispute.

I have an ad currently on CL for a duplex I have for rent. I am always cautious of things on CL because there are some real flakes that reply. When I get a reply like yours I tell them they must call me, so that I can pre-qualify them and dig into their background to possible uncover the lies. I alway s shy away from anyone telling me they can pay several months rent, etc. because this is a flag on the field to run the other direction…and fast. Thanks.

I had a woman that wanted to pay me 6 months rent in advance. I suggested that she give me the 6 months as deposit (which I would have insisted on to cover the risk of renting to her anyway). She hit the ceiling. If you take the 6 months as deposit and have them pay rent monthly you end up evicting them in 2 months and have the 6 months to cover your losses until you rent it again. Works for me…not for the purple Martian…By the way I use Dale’s teachings also.