Renting an apartment in 13

[dizyblond]

We are 3 years into a 4 year plan. We are currently renting an apartment -- have been here for 6 years so the BK happened while we were already living here and our landlords didn't have to find out about it.

We are thinking of moving and renting another apartment due to my hour+ commute. All of the places we are looking at are big rental communities. I've checked out the smaller ones where I was thinking they wouldn't do a credit check but they are all pretty crappy apartments and I can't picture living at any of them. We live in a decent apartment now and don't want to upgrade or anything -- keep the rent at the same or lower as we have now -- just live closer to work.

Question: What can I expect from the new leasing agency when I apply? Will they flat out reject me or ask for a huge deposit? Should I tell them about the BK at the time I apply or ask what their policy is in advance, or should I just fill out the application and let them find out and see what happens?

Thanks in advance!

[SMinGA]

Ask their policy - the leasing agent should be able to tell you their qualifications. Should have them printed on the application, actually.

I used to work in property management - and the 4 areas we looked at were criminal (automatic denial), credit, rental, income. If rental history was bad (eviction, balance owed to another property, poor payment history) then there was not much we could do to work with someone. But if credit was the only obstacle and rental history good, we could usually work it out.

Where I am, the typical deposit is only $200-300. For those with credit challenges or lack of rental history (not the same thing as bad history) then we'd charge 1-2 months extra deposit. Fully refundable, not a fee. Make sure its not an extra free!

Gross income usually needs to be 3.5-4X the apartment rent, and job stability helps of course! (Though I can't recall ever declining anyone because they had started a new job. It just helped to overcome for lack of rental history or questionable credit.)