You don’t have to be all stressed out if your credit report has negative items on it. There are many landlords that are open minded and willing to work with people that have less than perfect credit.
The secret is to do the following:
- Work only with landlords that are open to working with people with bad credit histories. This is done by first prescreening landlords to determine if they are open to working with people with bad credit. Don’t just get in the car and start looking at houses. Prescreen first.
- Have something else you can give the landlord to overrule your negative credit history. Your credit report is not the only thing that can prove your willingness and ability to pay.
Other things you can offer are the strength of your income, stable employment, or just a really good reason why you got behind on your bills in the first place. Did you go through a divorce, did you have medical bills, and did you get laid off- what happened?
Also don’t worry too much about your credit report. Although landlords will still pull it, you can get them to completely ignore everything on your credit report. I’m serious- completely ignore it.
I can tell you that with 2 repossessions, more than $70,000 of collections, and unfortunately 3 foreclosures on my credit report, I have still been able to rent very nice homes in nice areas. Yeah the landlords still pulled my credit report but as I said I was able to get them to completely ignore everything on my credit report and look at other factors. I have moved every year for the last 3 years and never had any issues. And I have never had a cosigner- I did it all on my own.
You know landlords are people too and they also have feelings and understand the no one is perfect. Well some landlords want perfect people but not all of them. The open minded landlords really just want to know that you are willing and able to pay the rent. So how can you prove that to them?
You will also want to stay away from some landlords. For example is you see a listing that says “Good credit only” then 99% of the time they will not rent to someone with bad credit. Do yourself a favor and just keep on moving to the next listing.
The shortcut to renting a home or renting an apartment with bad credit, just prescreen landlords to make sure they are open to working with people with bad credit and have something else to offer to prove that you are willing and able to pay the rent… it’s as simple as that.