House rental application process (Seattle, Shoreline: apartment complex, rentals, credit check)

[TheTravellers]

We are fairly new to the Pacific Northwest and are looking for rental houses in the Seattle area because we want to be closer to the city. We haven't actually visited any houses yet and were wondering about the whole application
process/credit/background check.

Are people generally required to give their Social Security numbers and driver's license numbers just to apply for a rental house? In this day and age, that is very sensitive information, and it seems kind of weird to go to cattle call open houses and just freely give it away. At this point we are looking mainly at houses and some townhomes, not apartments, and it has been such a cat-and-mouse game dealing with prospective landlords. Not all of them return calls or e-mails, meaning they don't always come across as particularly reliable. They seem surprised that I have questions about the property, but they don't hesitate to ask about our income, employment, etc ...

We have never rented a house before, only apartments (we are in a noisy apartment now and have had problems with aggressive neighbors and as a result have a dim view of apartment life in this part of the country).

It seems like an extremely competitive market for houses here. We are looking for something $1,500 a month or lower, at least two bedrooms, with washer/dryer, at least 1,000 square feet, in north Seattle or possibly Shoreline or Mountlake Terrace, in a decent area. Does that seem doable?


Yes, I know, we are high maintenance, and sorry for the tangent

Oh, yeah, and we have two cats, , so that takes many mid-priced options away from us immediately. At least we don't smoke!

Mrs. Traveller

[AzDreamer]

I haven't rented for many years and don't know how the laws may have changed, but you are asking a landlord to trust you with a property worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Landlords that want to stay in business are forced to screen out potential bad apples. SSNs may be the only id available to use for getting a person's credit history.

You admit to being high maintenance. If you were a landlord would you pick that kind of a tenant when others are available?

This is only a suggestion, but if you were able to see both sides of this arrangement and tried to accommodate reasonable requests you would probably get more calls and emails returned.

[VeronikaW]

When we moved here, DH and I were looking to rent a house. We also have 2 cats, and I wanted 2+ bedrooms, and 2 bathrooms and a washer/dryer, oh and a garage. Our budget was a bit higher, and we did find some things, but pretty much you're going to have to give out a driver's license and an SSN on a rental application so they can run credit on you.

We ended up with a rental townhome in Issaquah, because nothing I saw in Seattle proper was doing it for me (small, moldy, expensive).

I found a lot of places by putting a "Housing Wanted" ad on Craig's List, you may go that route.

V. =)

[TheTravellers]

Originally Posted by AzDreamer

I haven't rented for many years and don't know how the laws may have changed, but you are asking a landlord to trust you with a property worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Landlords that want to stay in business are forced to screen out potential bad apples. SSNs may be the only id available to use for getting a person's credit history.

You admit to being high maintenance. If you were a landlord would you pick that kind of a tenant when others are available?

This is only a suggestion, but if you were able to see both sides of this arrangement and tried to accommodate reasonable requests you would probably get more calls and emails returned.

I think you have misunderstood what I am trying to say. When I say "high maintenance," and it was an attempt at a joke, I mean we have a lot of stuff and need a lot of room, we have cats, and apparently a lot of people won't rent to people with pets. We have certain areas we are looking at for commute and safety reasons. We are very good tenants. We have an excellent rental record. We are good neighbors. We are quiet.

I have answered pretty much all of the questions asked of me by these landlords. As a standard operating procedure, I wouldn't give too much personal information in a call or e-mail, of course (nobody has asked for things of this nature, just to clarify, so nobody else makes any wild assumptions). There are all sorts of scams on craigslist, for landlords, too, I hear. There are reasons to be cautious with personal information.

As for my calls and e-mails going returned, how can I possibly be faulted if nobody answers my initial contact? And, before I actually go see the place, is there some kind of unofficial code that says I can't ask the landlord over the phone the size of an apartment, or if it has a dishwasher, or whatever, if that information is not advertised? Those are the kind of questions I am talking about, and I don't think I am being unreasonable. In the long run, that also saves time and effort for the prospective landlord, because if a property doesn't have certain things I won't want to rent it. And if landlords can't return initial calls or answer simple questions like that, I don't want to rent from them, anyway.

Mainly, we really just wanted to know what to expect, since this area is so full of surprises, and, as I said in my original post, we have never rented a house before. Are we expected to show driver's license, birth certificates, Social Security numbers, etc... as a matter of standard procedure? We are just doing our homework. That makes the process easier for prospective landlords, too, because we will know what to bring to showings.

Have a nice day, and maybe you should not jump to so many quick conclusions next time. Thanks for your insight.

Mrs. Traveller

[TheTravellers]

Originally Posted by VeronikaW

When we moved here, DH and I were looking to rent a house. We also have 2 cats, and I wanted 2+ bedrooms, and 2 bathrooms and a washer/dryer, oh and a garage. Our budget was a bit higher, and we did find some things, but pretty much you're going to have to give out a driver's license and an SSN on a rental application so they can run credit on you.

We ended up with a rental townhome in Issaquah, because nothing I saw in Seattle proper was doing it for me (small, moldy, expensive).

I found a lot of places by putting a "Housing Wanted" ad on Craig's List, you may go that route.

V. =)

Thanks for the info,


Mrs. Traveller

[Pittgal]

We rent a house out here and we had to give our drivers licenses and ss # so that they could do a credit check on us. We found the house are in on craiglist. I would only inquire about house that list a picture, trust me..the ones without pictures don't have them for a reason. We really like the house we rent and love the area. The house is about 20 years old but works great for us. 4bdrms 3 baths about 2400 sq ft with a huge back yard. There are great houses out there but they can be costly. We pay $1950 but it is so worth it to us! Good luck on your search!

BTW ~ we also had to give the same info the the apartment complex we first lived in out here..so its the norm when you rent!

[wannabeaTexan]

Yes, giving out that info is the norm. Try rentclicks.com for home rentals as well.