Yes, definitely more risks to a degree. Most of the people in our houses are on some type of assistance. The one’s who aren’t are generally couples where both adults work. If both are making $8-9/hr, they’re doing ok to afford our places. The sect 8 renters always seem to come up w/ a deposit without a problem. They know the decent houses get snatched up quickly. I once had a trashy looking lady tell me she was going to borrow part of the deposit from her 14 yr old daughter and then wanted to give me $20 her and there. Even if not coming up w/ the deposit wasn’t enough of a reason to deny her, I would’ve done it because she was so pathetic as to borrow from her young daughter like that.
For a couple years, I was actually taking lower deposits to try and be the “nicer and better LL.” That got shot to hell this spring after getting taken advantage of by a couple people. Now I at least get a full month’s rent. I really wish I could demand a full month’s worth for deposit and then first and last month too, but I’d never ever find anyone to fill the houses.
Our rent is running 2.5x the amount of our mortgages each month (mostly on 10 yr notes) so I guess I’ll put up w/ a little BS for that… 