Renting house to a church??? - Posted by Mike T.

Posted by Paul Macdonald on January 06, 1999 at 21:48:01:

I’ve only financed two pastors, both had housing funded by the church. My underwriters wanted to see the tax returns - which showed the housing payments -and said no problem.

You should be able to get the church to verify the housing payment. The church, by the way, is not responsible for paying the rent. They are responsible for paying the pastor a monthly sum to go towards his housing expense.

You want to check on the church’s economic stability? Find out how long they’ve been around. Other than that do you do a Dunn & Bradstreet commercial credit check. But do you do that much on your other tenants? If the church has been around more than a couple of years you’re probably as covered as you’d be with most small companies.

Ask for the job history of the pastor and projected future, you’ll get a pretty good handle if you’ve got a safe tenant or not.

Renting house to a church??? - Posted by Mike T.

Posted by Mike T. on January 06, 1999 at 21:25:50:

A semi-retired pastor and his wife are interested in renting one of my rental properties. The pastor has no income but his church is supposed to pay for his living expenses. I had them fill out an application and could check his credit history, but, as a pastor, he doesn’t really have much to check. Anyway, it appears as though the church would actually be responsible for paying the rent. How would I go about verifying the finances of the church or their responsibility to paying the rent? Should the church co-sign the lease if they are responsible for paying the rent? I haven’t come upon this circumstance in my somewhat limited landlording experience.

I think this couple would be very good, long term tenants otherwise.

Thanks,
Mike