So what’s wrong with meeting all of your own prospective tenants and then going off of your gut feelings?
If you are an experienced property manager or landlord, then your gut probably gives you useful information; however, there are some risks involved. Fair housing rules say, more or less, that you should establish a set of objective applicant criteria and then select the first applicant that meets those criteria. As more “unconventional” applicants enter the rental market and have difficulty renting, we can expect fair housing complaints to rise as well. In such circumstances, using one’s “gut” doesn’t figure into that equation. Also, few landlords have ever seen a rental housing market anything like what we’re now experiencing, so their gut may not tell them what it once did.
If you are an inexperienced property manager or landlord, then your “gut” may be costing you (or your client) money and hassle. Until you’ve had a chance to correlate your gut instincts to actual results, you’re inviting unnecssary risks, especially when there are alternatives that will help you make better decisions or to at least create a documentable rationale for the decisions you’re making.
