After seeing the hate in this thread for landlords I was tempted not to post, but here we go.

Local private/small time landlord. 3 doors in the Springfield area. 3x rent in gross income is an industry standard. Just like most financial planners recommend that your mortgage shouldn’t be more than 30% of your gross income, by setting that requirement the landlord is assuring that the applicant can actually afford to live there. People have other expenses ranging from car payments, student loans, to food, gas, etc. the 3x isn’t to be mean, it’s to find qualified applicants that are going to pay their rent. There is most certainly risk associated with renting to people, and using filter requirements lowers the risk. I have an obligation to review applications, and legally I can’t just pick who I like the most, I have to choose the most qualified applicant. The person with 6x gross income to rent ratio and a 750 credit score is going to get accepted over the 3x/650 even if the latter technically meets the requirements too, because otherwise I’d be risking a discrimination lawsuit.

For the folks that seem to think this is unreasonable, imagine putting $50,000 into an investment to make $300 a month after you’ve paid the taxes, insurance, maintenance, put blood sweat and tears into making sure everything is perfect, and then being told in order to get $300 you are going to need to spend an additional $10,000 and wait a year, operating at a loss because you have to evict a non-paying tenant. So yeah, I’m aware that there is risk, and using effective screening does reduce it to make sure that my family doesn’t have to default on our mortgage to keep a roof over someone else’s head.

Also in response to bitmush, sorry you’ve had a bad experience with renting from the sound of it. Our goal in renting/property management is to provide houses we would be comfortable living in ourselves with timely management, good maintenance, and fairness; just in general treating humans like humans. We try and fix issues within a week; we charge a 1 month security deposit (3x is illegal in Missouri by the way, max you can charge is 2x), and we do a move-in checklist with any prior damage noted that we keep on file, signed by the tenants and us, to protect tenants from us overcharging for repairs upon move out.

Happy to answer any constructive and relevant questions. I’m just a human with a full time w2 job that wants to provide a service to people in the community, and rentals are a great way for me to help secure my retirement in the future while helping out too.