You Can Rent an Apartment Even With Bad Credit

It is now common knowledge that many landlords and apartment leasing office managers conduct credit and background checks to determine whether their prospective tenants are qualified to live there. A few years ago this was not the norm but we can more or less expect this when we attempt to lease an apartment. The apartments do this first and foremost to comply with their rules and regulations (these differ from complex to complex). They also do this so they can keep the rental rates high. The practice of conducting routine credit checks has caused a lot of good people to be denied housing simply because they have a spotty credit history. Let us examine how you can avoid getting docked and denied housing which is your basic right as a human being.

Do they absolutely have to do a credit check? I always recommend that before you begin your search for an apartment you pull your own credit. It can be very disheartening to be denied housing because of something in your credit that you know nothing about. It is now possible to get a free copy of your credit report in almost every state in the US as long as you have not received one within the last 12 months. Also if you have been denied credit in the last 30 days you can take that letter to any of the three major credit bureaus and receive a free credit report.
Apartments that do not conduct credit checks Believe it or not, there are apartments that do not conduct credit checks but you must search smart in order to find them.

One place to look is Craigslist which is a vast marketplace where individuals and companies place their property for rental or sale. Craigslist also has a search engine where you can search the vast array of properties being posted literally every minute. There are also excellent rental properties without credit checks on your local newspaper's classified sections.

Apartment finders Apartment finders are also one of the best sources on information regarding hard-to-find landlords that do not conduct credit checks. By virtue of their profession, apartment finders, otherwise known as locators, rub shoulders with numerous landlords and are in a position to know what criteria they use to approve their tenants.

Have someone recommend you If you have spotty credit, you may find that many apartments deny you housing and this can be very frustrating especially since many of them do not conduct a credit check until after you have paid the deposit. You may end up being denied and out of your deposit at the same time. While most of them will automatically refund you the deposit if you are denied, you may not get it until after 30 days because most refunds are usually processed by the "corporate office" and not the apartment itself. You can get over the huddle of credit checks by having someone with good credit and a good reputation write a letter of recommendation for you.


By Irene James