Renting a Home/Apt after discharge

[DirkDiggler]

Will potential landlords be able to see our perfect payment history on our mortgage before it was included in the bankruptcy? How does that work? I've been looking into renting a house or apartment and most are saying we would need good rental history. We've owned a house for 9 years now and there's no rental history on our credit report since the last time we lived in a rental residence was over 10 years ago. How does this work? Thanks!

[JessMN]

I don't know exactly what the landlord sees, but frankly I was in the same situation - mortgage for 9 years (the first 7 were prefect payments), lived with mom for a few years before that so I hadn't rented in 13 years. I told the apartment manager I was in an active BK when I was looking at the apartment. They ran my application and then called and asked me for an explanation, which I gave them. They asked for a deposit equal to 1 month's rent. And thats it. No issues other than the mild embarrassment I had in explaining my situation.

[etechjc]

We moved about 90 days after our BR and we had a harder time finding a place that would let us keep our dog than we did finding a place that cared about the BR. We found a place in less than a week.

When we were looking for a place to rent I was straight forward with any landlords we talked to before they ran a CR and in some cases before we looked at the house.

The conversation was pretty standard and went like this, The first question we would get "Is it discharged?" we would answer "Yes", Then they would ask "Are there any evictions on your record?" We would answer "Nope" They would then say, "We don't really care then." You'll be fine.

Funny thing is I had nearly $12,000 in cash and was prepared to offer double the Down, and first year rent upfront if we found that perfect place. It just never even came close to us needing to do that. The only thing extra we ended up needing was $300 for the stinking dog.

We owned our house for 5 years before we moved, had perfect payment history up to the last 6 months when we realized we were going to give up the house. Then we decided to save the money instead of paying on the house. Personally I wish we had stopped paying at least a year before, But, Hindsight is 20/20.

I think when most do a credit check they are more looking for evictions than overall credit.

I have a friend that was almost in identical situation as us, Only difference is the sheriff had to kick him out after the foreclosure and that showed up as an eviction on his CR. He had to look for almost 4 months before he could find a place. Slept in our basement for 3 of those months after his mom kicked him out, Ugh!!!

Of course all this really varies on your location. But I would be willing to bet that if you can show a 9 year history of perfect on time payments, You wont have any problems finding a place as long as they let you explain the situation.

[SweetGeorgia]

I had almost the exact same experience! While our BK was still in the 60 day waiting period, I applied to rent a house. I practically dragged a promise out of them that we would be approved -despite BK and FC- because I wasn't about to waste the $50 application fee. And they did approve us, although I ended up not renting that house (which I still regret, actually).

I kept looking and found that my 2 Labradors are a MUCH bigger impediment than our credit is! My husband complains a lot about the house we're renting now (because it's small and costs more than we like), but honestly I'm just so grateful that the landlords were big-dog-friendly, had a great dog fence out back, and didn't even charge a pet deposit.

My advice: don't advertise the credit issues, but be matter-of-fact about explaining it if they ask. Emphasize the positive - your income, your cash, and your interest. When I saw this house, I was on it like a duck on a junebug. I applied immediately, and when I sent the application I included a pay-stub copy, as well as checks for a deposit and the first month's rent.

Good luck!