How do you rent a house with no credit history ?

[Big GG]

Alegria,

Thanks for wishing us well. Actually I also bank with HSBC here in Istanbul and I will talk to them to see whether they can do this credit transfer thing to a local bank in Toronto.

[Alegria2]

Getting my credit rating accepted at HSBC Canada (in order to get a credit card, car loan, etc.) was something I did once here, but it would definitely be worth finding out if your branch in Istanbul has any Canadian contacts. In fact, I believe HSBC has a service for people moving overseas where you can open an account in Canada ahead of your move which would be worthwhile. Sadly, HSBC is not a big player in Canada (branches are few and far between), but as credit is so important to every day life, it's worth the small annoyance.

[copious]

Another option is to find a private investor with a house or condo to rent. Or, even a basement apartment or main floor of a house if you're OK with that. Sometimes, a person with an investment property will rent based on letters of reference and a gut feeling. Whereas a corporation or rental management company with a slew of apartments or townhouses for rent will automatically do a credit check. And often times, if just one part of the credit check doesn't fit a pre-determined set of criteria, you get an automatic disqualification.

Sure, they could be turning away many good potential renters, but they often have enough potential renters with a credit profile and other criteria that perfectly matches their requirements. I had a hard time renting a few years ago when I was just being discharged from a personal bankruptcy. Although I had a perfect rental history, no company would rent to me. If there was a credit check involved, I had to pass on it. There was no point even applying. Newcomers to Canada will face a similar challenge by having no Canadian credit history.

So, best to look for a rental from a private individual who won't do a credit check. One of my previous landlords preferred to rent to families - whether newcomers to Canada, or Canadian citizens. She said families were usually stable, responsible, not likely to have parties, damage the place or be late with rent.

On a sidenote, I once offered to pay 3 months rent in advance to put the building owner's mind at ease.

[Big GG]

Since we are considering renting a family house, I reckon, we will be dealing with individual home owners. We should be OK on the "gut feeling" front IMO.

Thanks for all the advice. We are all excited about this whole experience.

[Big GG]

One more question. I checked online from formal EAOQ website performance of Public Elementary Schools in general . I am talking about Halton board elementary schools.

If a school's performance is right up there with the average performances of the Board and the Province, what does it tell me ?

Performance measurement criteria of the school on the website is the percentage of students achieving provincial standards in maths, reading, writing etc.

There are some schools in some neighbourhoods at which, students score much higher than board and province average and my wife is telling me we should definetely aim for these schools. But it is hard to find a good house that falls into the catchment area of that spesific school.

So we need to make a decision about that too. Therefore my question would be how do we make a decision on the selection of the schools ?

I understand that performance of the students only can not be the single parameter for evaluating the quality of schools because public schools generally need to accommodate children who are academically behind their peers for variety of reasons and it is the generally the quality of the teaching staff that matters.

But I can't help noticing a very obvious trend in the statistics that the more the average income of the neighborhood, the better the student scores are. Hence more expensive housing in these neighbourhoods. There is also a huge number of private schools in Halton board area which tells me a lot of people are paying good money for elementary school education of their kids. If the reason is not to get them religious or special education etc. then it is a question mark for me because that means people are questioning the quality of the public schools.

I appreciate any advice and insight on the subject.

Thanks,

[Big GG]

Sorry, I have just posted the same question under a seperate thread to increase visibility. I appreciate if you could reply there.

[RamseCA]

Hello BIG GG,

Many landlords will rent to you without any credit check if you pay a few months upfront and show financial sufficiency. If you have the means it is MUCH better to send your children to private schools. These schools need to compete for clients and generally will have better qualified teachers, more efficient allocation of resources etc. Public schools tend to have a bias towards the government/teachers union and discourage independent thinking. However the Ontario public schools are NOT that bad.

[Gary Siete]

Don't rent from someone on Craigslist. There are too many rental scams where someone collects a deposit on a house or apartment that they don't own.

[Don NUZZA]

Hi Big GG,

I've read your situation when you you were new to Toronto in 2011 and it's very similar to my case. By april 2015 me & my wife will be moving to Toronto as PR too, and I'm totally worried about the housing thing especially that I'll be similar to you, coming to the big city with no job or credit history. So if you can advice me and tell me what you did ? i'll be grateful , and if there are any other tips that you can offer me regarding job hunting or adapting to Toronto's life style, I would appreciate that too.

THANKS BIG GG.

[Nazar Ajeely]

I'm a licensed Realtor in Canada - Ontario, I helped hundreds of newcomers in the past years to rent their first home in the Greater Toronto Area, Peel & Halton regions ( Mostly Mississauga, Oakville, Burlington & Milton ) .. at no cost to the tenant I showed them places & finalized the lease agreement, I don't charge them anything as I get paid by the listing brokerage through the landlord ..

It's not as easy renting to newcomers to Canada because landlords want to see credit history, references & employment ( Job ) to guarantee their rent will be paid but newcomers they don't have job or credit history & sometimes they don't even have references in Canada to be their guarantor. Also their situation is unstable because sometimes they change their mind due to adaptability issues, weather, or they might find job in other city or so many other issues they might encounter and force them to move out or cancel the agreement half way before the end of the lease term therefore landlords are very reluctant dealing with newcomers, however, as a real estate agent I found that when newcomers offer the landlord upfront rent payment such as ( 3 or 4 months upfront ) it will make the landlord more secured and become more flexible in renting to newcomers and solve the problem 99% of the times .. just make sure this is documented in the agreement & welcome to your new home Canada .. I'm more into selling & buying homes and commercials now but I still get some rental listings from time to time so Let me know if you need any help ( [url=http://www.NazarAjeely.com]Home | Nazar Hameed | Real Estate Salesperson | Re/Max Legacy Realty Inc. | Toronto | Canada | (647) 975-7788[/url] )