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Old 08-27-2009, 01:56 PM
 
8 posts, read 146,387 times
Reputation: 28

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I was wondering if any of the landlords/property managers here had any experience with SafeRent?

The community my family is looking to move to uses this service to check backgrounds.

We had BAD credit due to our own stupidity in the past. However, we have a perfect payment record with our current landlord (2 years worth), no evictions, foreclosures, bankruptcies, no criminal record. My husband has 12 years of employment history with the same company. The normal security deposit for fully approved applicants is $100 but can go up to a full month's rent. We understand this and are prepared to pay the full month's rent for deposit.

From what I have read, SafeRent comes up with it's own score based on several criteria, credit reports being one.

I am just afraid of being denied because we were idiots in the past. So can anyone tell me how a SafeRent score works? WOuld you rent to us?

We have no pets, are quiet tenants, have good references....our credit scores are the big giant elephant in the room.....

Last edited by grc319222; 08-27-2009 at 02:10 PM..
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Old 08-27-2009, 03:40 PM
mwv
 
207 posts, read 671,304 times
Reputation: 196
I've no knowledge of SafeRent but there are many similar services.

Do you have recent bad debt and items in collection? What type of items are they and for how much?

A good, verifiable recent rental history and established employment along with a large security deposit may overcome bad credit, but this will depend on the landlord and of what that bad credit consists.

It's best to just be upfront, complete and honest with the prospective landlord- most of them will tell you if you'll meet their qualifications. If the say they'll accept you as long as what you tell them matches what's on your credit report then they probably will.

You should get copies of your credit reports free in advance, as permitted by law as annualcreditreport.com so you know what's on them. Indeed, you can show them to the landlord.
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Old 08-27-2009, 03:50 PM
 
8 posts, read 146,387 times
Reputation: 28
Quote:
Originally Posted by mwv View Post
I've no knowledge of SafeRent but there are many similar services.

Do you have recent bad debt and items in collection? What type of items are they and for how much?

A good, verifiable recent rental history and established employment along with a large security deposit may overcome bad credit, but this will depend on the landlord and of what that bad credit consists.

It's best to just be upfront, complete and honest with the prospective landlord- most of them will tell you if you'll meet their qualifications. If the say they'll accept you as long as what you tell them matches what's on your credit report then they probably will.

You should get copies of your credit reports free in advance, as permitted by law as annualcreditreport.com so you know what's on them. Indeed, you can show them to the landlord.

I have 2 recent bad debts. One to Sprint and one to Directv (both of which I am trying to work with to pay off). The rest are 3+ years old.

I explained our situation and they said "we can work with bad credit, but no guarantees" Well, I knew that, but I do like to be armed with info.

I have our credit reports on hand. I have been very honest with them since the day we met the PM for a tour.

Does it matter if it is a Section 42 property?
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Old 08-28-2009, 12:03 PM
 
Location: Jacksonville, FL (Mandarin)
2,557 posts, read 6,458,738 times
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As a landlord, I have used Saferent in the past. But, once they went to their "proprietary scoring" method, I quit using them. It gave no credit detail and no credit score. Those items are crucial in determining the creditworthiness of a tenant. If I can't firmly verify an applicants credit, even if it's trashed, in addition to a rental history letter from past landlords, then I'll charge a higher security deposit.
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Old 12-01-2010, 04:46 PM
 
1 posts, read 32,913 times
Reputation: 10
I had a judgement from 2007. And its paid in full but i have some credit cards im paying off at the moment. What exactly does safe rent look at on your credit score to approve or deny you? Because i need to move by january and my credit score is very bad because of some bad choices i've made since 2007.
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Old 12-01-2010, 06:23 PM
 
12,115 posts, read 33,536,952 times
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they probably tell you what items they look at when you give your written permission to have them check your credit. they can probably see whatever is legally allowed to remain on the report as per state or Federal FCRA rules
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Old 02-01-2011, 08:13 PM
 
1 posts, read 32,385 times
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I was curios of the same thing, but it can be unfair to not rent to someone due to a "credit score" I can understand letters from prior landlord(s) but just because you could not pay a credit card or something does not mean you won't pay your rent...that is top priority
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Old 04-06-2011, 01:27 PM
 
1 posts, read 31,769 times
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The way a landlord will look at slow payments on credit cards: If you can't make a small payment on a credit card every month, why is a landlord to believe that you can pay the monthly rent, which is usually a bigger number, on time each month.
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Old 04-06-2011, 02:12 PM
 
912 posts, read 5,236,705 times
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It really all depends on whether the bad-credit is just a bad season that a tenant had, if it describes the way they live their life.

Basically, incurring debt, and then figuring out that paying it back doesn't apply to them.

So I'd be more worried about whether the tenant has a long history of non-payments, rather than missing a few months of a credit card bill or cable television.

Whatever you do, save the sob stories, and the phrase "we were hoping you could work with us". Landlords have just about heard it all before, and those two are big red flags.
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Old 07-23-2013, 12:28 PM
 
1 posts, read 21,246 times
Reputation: 11
My husband & I were looking to move into something cheaper, hoping to save money & buy a house, the 2places I wanted to rent from denied us. after looking into it closely they both used saferent. When u called them to get my report, I had 2 pages full of rental history that wasn't even me...my brother had the same problem, he & my father have the same name "Jr & Sr" different Social Security numbers but they continue to deny my brother because they thought he was my father. I don't like them and I think what they're doing is wrong.
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