Finding Landlords that Provide Second Chance Rentals

The dream situation for everybody is to find an apartment in a safe neighborhood and within his or her budget – while working at improving the credit score. When hunting for an apartment, most property managers and landlords will ask for tenant screening, which also includes checking into their past. However, what do you in the event you have a bad credit history?

You have the option of a second chance lease, which offers people with past financial issues, a criminal history, or a rental negative history an opportunity to lease apartments. Unfortunately, most apartment landlords don’t lease to individuals with financial problems, broken leases, criminal convictions, and evictions. Below are a few ways that will help you find a landlord willing to rent to you despite the negative history you may have.

Shop for Multiple Options

When looking for an apartment landlord, you have to contend with the fact that you may have to search beyond your desired neighborhoods. Applying this strategy helps you get various options across a variety of neighborhoods, increasing chances of finding something right for you.

photo/ Palo Cech

Rental owners are different and their credit score cut-off requirements may be different, which includes factors they are willing to consider. In addition, finding several rentals in the same area provides you with the added advantage of comparing landlord preferences.

While shopping for your apartment, it’s critical you pay close attention to online reviews of listed properties on sites like https://www.umovefree.com/Neighborhood/dallas-galleria-apartments-dallas-tx/. Former tenants may use the opportunity to mention concerns such as stringent credit score requirements. Perhaps, you will come across a landlord with loose requirements, which helps in narrowing down your search parameters tremendously.

Get a Co-Signer

While it might not be the ideal situation for you, getting a relative or friend to cosign the rental application is a chance to show your landlord that they will get monthly rent. If you can show that you are capable of paying on time, the more likely your rental application will be approved. However, make sure that the apartment you cosign is affordable since it also makes your friend or relative liable in case you don’t pay.  

When you can pay rent on your own and firmly on good financial standing with a solid credit score, you can always remove your cosigner. In some cases, this may require drawing up a new agreement, but this is a possibility once your landlord can see that you are a lesser financial risk.

Consider References

If there’s a past landlord or current employer who applauds your dependability, you can always have them be references in terms of establishing your good character. In addition, such references will also corroborate your tough circumstances such as medical illness or family tragedy that might have contributed to your current financial situation. If you have such critical people in your life, landlords will likely be less fazed by your bad report.

Be Honest

It’s tempting to hunt for landlords that don’t carry out credit checks, so they don’t dig into your past history – but this is not always a great option. That said, your landlord will be disappointed in case they find out about your history after signing the lease.

Instead, be upfront about the information on your past, and give assurance that you are working on improving your current score. Addressing such issues early helps improve your reputation as an honest individual, which is important for creating a long-lasting tenant-landlord relationship.

Leverage on Cash and a Steady Income

If possible, use cash for paying a larger deposit or pay your rent in advance to show the apartment owner that you’re serious. You can also show the landlord that you are drawing a regular salary as opposed to when you were in financial trouble. A steady income is extra information that proves that you will take care of the house and pay rent on time.

Alternatively, make an auto-draft from a checking account or pay via direct deposit through your paycheck. This shows you are serious on renting and payments will not be late because you were busy.

Conclusion

Those looking for second chance apartments don’t need to feel that they are out of options. Such apartments are available to help you navigate through difficult times.

Author: Ashley Lipman