Name Calling As Tenant Selection
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by Robert L. Cain, Copyright 2009 Cain Publications, Inc. When a smart landlord rejects an applicant he has an intelligent, business-related reason for doing so. It has nothing to do with name calling. “Huh?” you ask, “what does name calling have to do with rental property?” Absolutely nothing, you’d think. Yet I hear landlords say they want to rent, or refuse to rent, on the basis of an epithet. Usually it has to do with someone's race, religion, or national origin. You know the litany: “I'm not renting to any ______________ .” You fill in the blank with the racial, religious or ethnic slur. Well, if you really want to prejudge and call names, I have some you can use, and they make good business sense: deadbeat, property trasher, filthy slob, drug dealer, thug, sleazeball, crook, miscreant, hoodlum, degenerate, bum. You don't want to rent to anyone whom you could legitimately call those names. Those names describe the activities people engage in that would disqualify them from the respected status of “good tenant.” It is a well-known fact that there are blacks, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Hispanics and all kinds of other people identifiable by their race, religion or national origin who are horrible tenants, people whom you would never consider renting to. But the fact that they are horrible tenants, has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that they are blacks, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Hispanics, and so on. It has to do with the fact that they don’t pay the rent, deal drugs, trash property, are criminals, or whatever other things they do that disqualifies them from good-tenant status. It is also a well-known fact that there are whites, Easterners, Southerners, Northerners, Westerners, Protestants, and even Arizonans (gasp!) who are horrible tenants. That has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that they are white, a certain religion, or came from a geographic region of the country but only that they aren’t civilized enough to be a good tenant. It just goes to show, you can’t judge whether or not someone will be a good tenant by looking at him or her. They all need to fill out a rental application in full, with something appropriate written in every space. They all have to show picture ID from all adults who will be moving into the property. They also have completely verifiable information on their rental applications. They must have sufficient income. And finally, they must meet your credit requirements. You can’t fill any of those requirements by just looking at someone. But you sure can if you have a rental application and verify everything. Want to call names? Go ahead. But make sure you have the evidence that the people you are calling names deserve them. No sleazeballs are going to rent from you. |