The downturn in the economy has caused many landlords to lower their credit requirements for new tenants. Of course, lowering credit requirements increases financial risk. Renting to a tenant with little or poor credit increases the likelihood that the tenant will at some point leave owing the landlord money.

This change in rental criteria is understandable, considering the need to keep all units rented.

But know that when you lower your standards and in turn incur debt, this debt will be tougher to collect than if you had rented to a tenant with good or great credit.

If you use a collection agency to collect the debt, you should also lower your expectations about how much you feel they should collect.