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I'm divorced, for about 2 years now. Separated 4. Anywho...during the time we were married , we signed documents together including leases.
Unfortunately, we were legally evicted from the last place we rented before I came to stay with my parents. I tried to get out of it because at the time I was in school and caring for my son, but the landlord said it was too late because my name was on the lease.
Anyways, id like to get my own apt, and I'm scared that no one will rent to me.
I don't make that much so I've been looking into low income housing, but I don't want my options to be so limited just because I was screwed over.
Any advice?
First, don't feel hopeless. You need to know, understand...and genuinely feel it- that you are in the same situation as millions of other people.
IF you can- stick it out at your parents. Meaning- you both have to come up with an agreement on rent, responsibilites, and boundaries.
This would be your best bet.
Your credit rating can be screwed up for a long time....but remember, with each passing year those negatives weigh less and less.
I know someone in similar situation except her's was forclosure and reposessions.....it's only been 2 years and she just got a new car with a great interest rate!
Your issue is your income/expense. You need to increase your income as much as you can while decreasing your spending as much as possible.
If you do not have any debt you are working to repay, now, file for a lesser credit card with one of your local department stores that you usually shop. If they reject your application, as your local bank manager for a small loan that you can pay off on time. (This isn't about borrowing to spend, but borrowing to pay back.)
If you can demonstrate that you are now responsible, you will be given greater credit. Over time, your history will become less significant, as long as you are showing reliability in the present.
I think a lot of people put the cart before the horse, worrying first about their credit and then their actual finances.
Focus on making yourself financially healthy. Keep working, save as much as you can, get rid of whatever debt you may have, etc. If your income isn't high enough, do what you can to increase it.
If you succeed at all of that, your credit will largely take care of itself. If you don't, then you're unlikely to achieve good credit in any case. And even if you do, you will not be able to use it without getting into financial trouble.
Were you actually living at the place you got evicted from? Or had you moved out and the ex was still living there? Either way you were still technically responsible for the rent, but it might make a difference to a prospective new landlord.
If you were living there and got evicted, I would agree you should probably just stay with your parents as long as you can make that work, as you will have a difficult time getting a rental, especially if your credit isn't so good and your income is marginal.
Landlords are sometimes willing to overlook one negative, but usually not 2 or more. Work on increasing your income, save some money, clean up your credit. All of that will put the eviction further into the past. Then you should be ready to get your own place again.
If living at home with your parents isn't a long term option, you might need to look at getting a roommate and renting someplace together, but that has its own risks too.
Not all landlords require a reference or credit check. I refused to submit to one when I was looking for a place to rent because I knew we'd be looking for a mortgage soon and didn't want any unnecessary hard pulls on my report. I would've pulled a copy myself and showed it to them, if the landlords insisted, but they never asked.
If you don't make much money, getting your own place could put you in a situation where you feel even more broke and hopeless. Unless it's intolerable at your parent's house, won't you have a lot better chance of saving some money up there?
The "Man" wants you to define yourself by your credit score. It's built into the design, and part of the trap intended to keep you in debt your whole life so nice men in suits can vacation in Europe and live up on the hill in very large houses at your expense.
Don't believe it! A human person is much more than an arbitrary set of numbers some company on the other side of the country types into a computer. More than one person understands this too, so while it may make life more difficult in some instances, it just isn't worth being depressed over. Chin up!
The "Man" wants you to define yourself by your credit score. It's built into the design, and part of the trap intended to keep you in debt your whole life so nice men in suits can vacation in Europe and live up on the hill in very large houses at your expense.
Don't believe it! A human person is much more than an arbitrary set of numbers some company on the other side of the country types into a computer. More than one person understands this too, so while it may make life more difficult in some instances, it just isn't worth being depressed over. Chin up!
I agree. I think that people who worry about their FICO score first and foremost are playing the game by a set of rules set up by people who don't have their best interests at heart. The whole thing is designed to keep people in permanent debt, permanently paying interest, fees, etc. to the people from whom they have borrowed the money.
We need to get smart and turn the game around on them. Don't borrow unless you have a strategic purpose. Don't buy what you can't afford now. Use borrowing to your advantage to build wealth, rather than throw it away for instant gratification. The whole FICO/credit industry conglomerate is not interested in your real financial health, just your ability to suck yourself dry paying interest to them endlessly. It's not necessary to play the game by their rules.
Financial health first, and FICO will take of itself. And the more financially healthy you are, the less FICO is relevant in any case.
Apartment managers usually have pretty wide latitude to bend the rules. Here, it is pretty hard to rent an apartment unless you can show that you nave income of 3x the rent. But my manager has rented to some of my neighbors, whom I know could not satisfy that, and they told me that she bent over backwards for them. I know that once in a while she gets burned, but its a good community here.
If you get rejected for that reason, just go around to every apartment complex, show your best face, be the kind of person that you would want to rent to, impress the manager with your optimism and the fact that you are a nice person who will be a nice tenant, and something magical might happen. Can't promise that it will, but it might. Some people's humanity rises above flow-chart mentality.
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