Rent an apartment with bad credit

In today’s world, credit means a lot. Having bad credit can result in living almost like a second-class citizen. Apartment complexes have also joined the fray by using your credit to decide whether or not to let you get an apartment. If you don’t know how to overcome bad credit, you can end up homeless. But that’s why we want to highlight a few steps you can take to make sure this doesn’t happen to you.

While credit checks are done routinely, different landlords use different credit requirements to approve prospective renters. Some apartments may outright deny your rental application if you have wrongdoing, regardless of a spotless rental history or even a hefty salary.

Here are some things to consider:

Resist getting a credit check
You can do this by exercising some strategic thinking. Get your own credit report up front and see what you have. If there are some problems with the above apartments, please take action to fix it. Credit checks also cost the apartment money and some may appreciate you bringing your own credit report.

craig’s list
Do a search on craigslist. Check for apartments for rent that don’t check your credit or cater to people with bad credit.

You may also be surprised to learn that there are many homeowners who use real estate agents to rent their homes and don’t necessarily care about people with bad credit. Checking with these agents in your local area could uncover some great apartments, townhomes, or even condos for rent without doing a credit check.

ask the owner
Talk to the landlord and ask what criteria are used to approve potential tenants for an apartment. If there is a credit check involved then you need to negotiate and you have a few additional options to get approved.

Get a co-signer
This can help a lot. If you have bad credit that is keeping you from getting approved, ask someone with good credit to say they are willing to sign for you and in most cases the apartment will agree. You may also need to write a letter stating that you are doing all you can to fix your credit problems.

Here are some of the things you can do to get approved for an apartment, even with bad credit.