finding an apartment with bad credit!! (Graham: sales, apartment complexes, leasing)

[fairygoddessjw]

okay, so i'm in quite the dilema here guys!! my husband JUST got a great new job working for a company in cary, nc. so, we now have a month to move down to the area (by the way we currently live in north east, pa)

we're super excited about the move and my husband is going to be making good money, its really a new begining for our family (we have two boys 8 mths. and 5yrs.)

so, we have a major problemo... we have pretty bad credit (not because we're dishonest or irresponsible people, but because we've had some rough times)! annddd...now we are having a horrible time finding an apartment... ANY apartment!! they all do credit checks and i just don't get how they can base what kind of tenant you'll be on your credit history? we've never had a problem finding a place around here. now i fear we may never find a place in the raliegh area and my husband will lose the job

so, if anybody has any kind of advice for me it would be greatly appreciated!!
thanx alot~

<3jewls

ps~ we applied for north forest apartments in wake forest ~ spent the $50. fee and got denied!!!

[pgtrnr]

I hope you got the $50 back.
You definitely want to rent from a complex that does do credit checks. The ones that don't are kind of scary.
You will probably just have to keep trying different places.
Maybe if you could get a copy of your credit report and take it w/ you around different apartment complexes, they can tell you right away if you might be approved?? That might waste less of your time.

[butterbeer]

Originally Posted by fairygoddessjw

i just don't get how they can base what kind of tenant you'll be on your credit history?

Not to hard to figure out why. It helps them weed out people who are at high risk of being deadbeats and not pay their rent. I'm sure if you owned a home and wanted to rent it out to potential clients you would want to run a credit check on them. I really doubt you would just take their word that they "will never be late on rent".

I am sorry you are having trouble, but your issue with people running credit checks seems a bit unwarrented. Running credit checks is the responsible thing to do for any landlord. I agree with previous poster that areas that do not require credit checks prove to be magnets for both people who have a few dings in their history as well as some very unsavory tenants.

[scorp200]

Are you in a position to pay several months up front? That might sway them in your favor. They do that in NYC sometimes (mine was decent by the time I moved there so I can't vouch for this).

[LM1]

The person who said bring your credit report with you before applying is correct.
This is also suggested operating for people with marginal credit who are looking for financing on a new car. Before you waste a ton of time doing the car-dealer dance, show them your credit report and tell them that you want to know if you can get financed before you endure the sales pitch.

As an aside, try craigslist.
Post an ad- Young, professional couple looking for housing. Landlord references available, etc. You can mention that you're both working on improving your credit and are having a bit of a rough time getting into "corporate" apartments with fixed, inconsiderate standards but you always pay your bills, blah, blah blah.

My brother has a felony conviction from when he was a stupid 19 year old- you think it's hard for YOU to get an apartment? He found his place on craigslist and lives a happy, productive, honest life with a landlord who didn't care.
This is how he

[saturnfan]

Be upfront and show the report before paying the fee.

Get a commitment that you can be approved. Some managements will work with you if you brinng a letter explaining what went wrong (eg; layoff, illness, etc).

I did this when moving here in 1989. A small increase in the deposit and a good job got us the apartment.

[liz2829]

We were in the same boat about two weeks ago. We did not get turn down by the first one they just never got around to giving us answer. We ended up renting in graham. We had to pay extra month for the security. We paying 689 for 1200 foot apartment and nothing comes with it. We got to supply everything. The manager was nice. We were up front about our credit. When we sent her our application we sent her our bank statement showing income for three months. I do not believe she ran a check. She had the answer to us in no time once receiving it. I did not want to end up in a neighboorhood that was bad. Not knowing where we going yet. We decided on Graham because it is still some what small. It got more than we need. We coming in from a town of 2000 people. At least for the next 15 months we can look around for other apartments. I spent over two months looking at apartments on line I know they start at 450 and go over a gran a month. I just set a budget of what we could afford. We not even seen the apartment pictures. I had no idea what it looks like yet. The manager has been very nice to us so far. We got a back apartment on the ground floor. I would just keep calling place and ask them flat out how it work. With our credit we were told oh no problems just pay a full month. We work with you. You learn from tones if something to go further or stay away from. We will be in graham in less than 10 days.

[SCtoNC]

About taking your credit report for them to review - many of the managed communities do not have the first idea what does or does not qualify you. We were denied once in VA and I asked them why, they said they only get an answer - yes, no or contingent. Yes & no being obvious, contingent being that they would rent to us contingent on us paying 1 months rent as our security deposit instead of $150. We were able to get a co-signer and had my parents co-sign for us, because we too, had some rough times and got behind a while back - unfortunately, that doesn't go away quickly!

So - just saying, before you get your credit report & take it to them, ask them how they determine whether you are a candidate or not. If they enter your application info into a system and it returns an answer based on what it finds, then they have no say and no way of knowing what exactly was the thing that got you denied. That's just as frustrating!

Also - most places won't give you back your application fee if you are denied... at least the areas in VA and SC where we rented.

[lakefrontgirl]

Instead of your credit report, go online and do a full criminal background check on yourself and take that, but it should be recent, no more than 1 month old. I once worked part time for a large leasing agency that were real "sticklers" about bad credit but it turned out they only went by your criminal backgrounds, and income. If you look up what they can legally charge you for a deposit, its only 1 1/2 mths rent, but if you are in a tight situation you can walk in with 2 months and tell them youll pay that much just for deposit alone. Its tough becuz excellent credit doesnt make you a good tenant. We had a beautiful place and a couple across from us that had seriously high paying great jobs, the kind you want to say "what the heck are you renting for when you can buy anything you want"....and they turned out to be horrible, the entire complex heard them yelling every single night, police were called literally 3 or more times per week but ONLY on them, no one else. It was a great complex and they were the only ones that gave it a bad name. So credit isnt always weeding out bad people, but most can see how it would.

[saturnfan]

Money's not everything.

One complex had to evict a female attorney with a 6 figure income for being dirty.

Be upfront with your situation and, before paying a fee, ask if you could be approved if what you told them is true.

Some managers will work with you if you seem nice, but fair housing laws can make it harder to accommodate you.