You’d think having plenty of money in the bank would make it easy to rent a house.

But that’s not always how it works.

This retired couple recently learned that after their landlord decided to sell the home they’d been renting.

In terms of income, they earned plenty. They brought in nearly $100,000 a year between Social Security and retirement distributions. Plus, they had more than $1.5 million in savings.

Still, landlords kept turning down their rental applications because they only counted part of the couple’s income when deciding whether they qualified.

Read on to learn more about their situation.

My rich retired brother is struggling renting a home! Why?

My 67-year-old, “somewhat rich” older brother, who was forced to retire when the corporation laid him off, has over $1.5 million in the bank and brokerage accounts.

His credit rating is excellent. He is a responsible person. The same goes for his wife, who is also retired.

His current landlord has decided to sell the home my brother and his wife are living in, so they will be forced to move in March. They want to rent and not buy a new house for the next few years.

In reality, their income looks good.

My brother and his wife have a combined Social Security income of about $3,000 a month, or $36,000 a year.

They take an annual distribution of 4% of their $1.5 million in assets each year in retirement. This is about $60,000 a year.

So their effective income is $36,000 from Social Security and $60,000 from distributions, which equals $96,000 a year. A typical upper-middle-class income for their medium-sized town in South Carolina.

However, on paper, it tells a different story.

Here is where they are facing a challenge: Landlords they have talked to will not consider the $60,000 they take out of their bank and brokerage accounts as income. They only count the $36,000 they receive from Social Security.

The $1.5 million in assets and the monthly distributions mean nothing to the landlords and property management companies. All requests to pay 3, 6, 9, or 12 months’ rent in advance were rejected by landlords and property managers.

So they are only eligible for a rental home or apartment with rent of $1,000 or less, based solely on their Social Security income.

The landlords require income equal to three times the monthly rent. Is this crazy? Or logical? Any solutions other than paying cash for a house?

Oh no! That sounds like such an unexpected situation.

Let’s see if the readers over at Reddit have any advice that can help.

This person explains how they dealt with something similar in the past.

This is actually great advice.

A little harsh, but true.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a grandson who is tired of driving 5 hours one way to work on his grandparent’s investment property for free.

According to this comment, they should look for a smaller landlord.

This definitely sounds frustrating, but it may be time to rethink the plan.

If landlords aren’t willing to count retirement distributions as income, that probably isn’t going to change.

Instead of fighting the system, paying cash for a modest home may end up being the better option.

And if they choose an area with lower taxes and a lower cost of living, they could stretch their retirement dollars even further and never have to worry about qualifying for a rental again.