Relocating to LA with Bad Credit (Orland: extended stay, apartment complexes, rentals)

[Drone Guy]

Hi Folks,

We are relocating from Florida to LA or well, we are trying.

Our credit is not good and are finding it very difficult to find a rental.

I wanted to see if anyone might have some suggestions on how to go about trying to find a place to live with our bad credit. We've not ever had issues here in Orlando but LA is proving to be a pretty serious challenge.

Also, if you can recommend some better areas as we have 3 children ages 11, 1 and 1 month.

Thanks in advnace.

[nightlysparrow]

Not to pile on, but I hope you already have jobs, because many employers run your credit too.

[IM90046]

Originally Posted by nightlysparrow

Not to pile on, but I hope you already have jobs, because many employers run your credit too.

Actually in most cases it's illegal to for employers to run credit. California law as of 2011.

http://www.ncsl.org/research/financi...-legis.aspx#CA

[nightlysparrow]

It's best the OP be prepared. The law allows quite a few exemptions and allows a credit check for "managerial positions," anyone who needs access to a person's credit card, SS number and date of birth (say, a doctor's office receptionist), anyone who works in a bank, anyone who has cash access in a store that does $10k of business in a workday (most bigger stores easily do this), any job that involves access to confidential or proprietary information, including a formula, pattern, compilation, program, device, method, technique, process or trade secret (say, working for a start-up, or data entry on a hospital computer system).

AB 22 Assembly Bill - CHAPTERED

[tjasse]

It's hard to find a decent rental in LA even if you have good credit.

[MordinSolus]

There are more people looking for apartments than their are available apartments. And who wants to take a chance on someone with bad credit if you have people with good credit wanting your apartment? It's just playing the odds. If you have bad credit you probably have trouble paying your bills on time.

[2sleepy]

Your best bet would be start out with a month to month rental that does not require a credit check - like an extended stay hotel and start working on rebuilding your credit. About your only other option is to drive around and look for rentals being offered by the property owner rather than a management company. And, there might be some apartment complexes that will rent to you if you can put up a very substantial deposit.

[Trae713]

Originally Posted by MordinSolus

There are more people looking for apartments than their are available apartments. And who wants to take a chance on someone with bad credit if you have people with good credit wanting your apartment? It's just playing the odds. If you have bad credit you probably have trouble paying your bills on time.

Or made a mistake as a teenager.

[botticelli]

Originally Posted by Trae713

Or made a mistake as a teenager.

nope. bad credit record follows you for a maximum of 7 years only. OP has a 11 year old kid.

[tjasse]

It's quite easy to get bad credit if you are running a business for yourself and especially if you have had a medical problem while running a business for yourself. For the OP, I think your only option is to just have a ton of cash and pay for many months of rent in advance.