We are a very small Mom and Pop business, very hands on. We do a lot of the management and even repairs
and cleaning ourselves. The benefit to you is that we can base our rental decisions on personal judgement as well as
on your credit score.
IF YOU WANT TO APPLY FOR THE HOUSE, APARTMENT OR COMMERCIAL SPACE AND If you have good
credit (or you are not sure and want us to find out for you) then do the following:
1. Obtain an application either at the house, or our office or print the one
on this website out and fill it out. Be sure and fill one out for each adult who will live on the premises.
SIGN THE APPLICATION
2. Hand deliver, mail or fax the SIGNED application to us
See "contact" for the fax # or the location of our office.
3. Pay $50 - usually in cash. Here are your options:
a. Pay cash in person
b. Deposit to a bank acct # we can give you
over
the phone .
c. Mail a money order
d. Pay with PAY PAL.
4. Upon paying the $50 we provide you with a copy of the SAMPLE LEASE. The lease is
written in ordinary English by Alida, not by an attorney. Its purpose is to AVOID legal problems by making
the rules of the "game" very clear. Please take plenty of time to read it.
If you do not have a good credit score you may want to do the following:
1. Go on the internet to obtain your own credit report.
2. Fax it to us to see if we might accept it. We can take things into consideration that
a big rental company might not. Like unpaid medical expenses affecting your FICO score
The reason I suggest you obtain your own credit report if you think you might
have poor credit is because of the following:
1. You have the legal right to one FREE credit report from each of the main
reporting agencies - which in practice amounts to 1 every 4 months if you alternate them.
2. In general when people check your credit, your score goes down by a point
or more. Every point matters. You can find out if we are likely to be able to rent to you before losing a
point on your credit or spending the application fee.
3. It really helps you to improve your credit in the future if you know the details of your report.
NOTE THAT BEFORE SIGNING A LEASE WE ALWAYS CHECK EVERYONE'S CREDIT - we can only give you a tentative
go ahead based on what the report you obtained says.
Also until a lease is signed, money paid and key turned over we reserve the right to rent to someone else
no matter what we might say verbally.
A question everyone asks is whether references especially from other landlords matter. They do.
The problem is that it is very difficult to verify the authenticity of the reference. Everyone
has a brother or friend who will verify anything they like. Landlords often are reluctant to give anything other than
the most minimal information. If the tenant is really bad they dont want to give a bad reference because they want to
get rid of the tenant. So unfortunately for the honest folks, landlord references dont mean too much. Nonetheless
if possible ask your landlord for a letter of recommendation with a person and phone to call for verification.
References from professionals or organizations tend to mean more than those from landlords. From a
bank, a realtor, a supplier, a pastor, or other community leader are much appreciated.
We do not in general rent to anyone with an Unlawful Detainer on their credit record. A
"ULD" is an eviction thru the courts. The exception is if the tenant can prove that they truly were
in the right. I would overlook a ULD that was disciminatory for example. But lets face it 99% of ULDs are
filed because the tenant didnt pay rent or committed a nuisance
and then they forced some poor landlord to go thru the entire expensive legal hassle of doing an eviction.
We are members of AOA - Apartment Owners Association and follow their guidelines and their code of ethics
etc.
If the above all seems like a lot of hassle, and you want a quick answer, then by all means PRINT OUT THE
APPLICATION from the website, FAX IT TO US pay the $50 (cash or via Pay Pal - we do not accept checks) and give us the
verbal request to do the credit check ASAP. We need an application from each adult who will be living on the premises.
Be sure each person signs the application because without the signature we can not legally do a credit check.
People sometimes ask if a co-signer will help. I used to allow co-signers. And may do so in
the future. But I have found that co-signers dont take the responsibility very seriously. If we went to court
we could probably collect from a co-signer but my purpose in life is to get good tenants and maintain good relations with
them from the beginning to the end including after they have moved out and they receive their refund and they feel that we
have been fair. A MEETING OF THE MINDS is a lot more important to me than winning a court case.
One more detail is that because we are a small company and we are workaholics, our business contacts including
tenants are our main contacts in life. As such we value the good manners, and pleasant exchange that can be part
of the tenant/landlord relations. Life is too often busy for more than a wave and a smile but even a wave
and a smile can make our day! We are inclined to treat our good tenants like Royalty - or at least we try. We
appreciate a bit of appreciation in return.
Like I say a wave and a smile go a long way . . . .
ON THE OTHER HAND . . . the fact that we are friendly and not always 100% business minded does not take
away from the fact that we are in business to make money. A & D Ventures is not a charity. We enforce our
rights, we have an eviction attorney on call and no amount of sympathy is going to allow anyone to live in one of our
good homes without paying rent.
GOOD HOMES FOR GOOD PEOPLE! is our MOTTO
