How To Rent An Apartment With Troubled Credit
Tactics To Help You Find The Home You Want
We are presently living in a sort of bizarro world where credit defines anything you’re able to do. Think about this if you want to feel your eyebrows jump involuntarily: you can totally lose your credit just by not taking out any loans. Seriously. You can take out a loan, pay it back, and get excellent credit. Then, after you’ve achieved your high score, sit back.
In seven years, the credit reporting agencies will delete the “file” that includes your credit history—if you don’t do anything to alter it. When you don’t spend money, take out loans, or become responsible for debts, your credit history gradually wanes like a spark or a flame without any fuel; then, when the time comes, it winks out entirely.
So by not over-extending yourself, by not having some sort of tiny debt for which you’re responsible, your credit essentially expires. It’s bad enough that you can miss payments and lose your credit score. Doing nothing will kill it as well. You have to be balanced, or you’re not going to be able to rent, you can’t lease, you won’t be able to get loans, and much more.
But here’s the thing: just because you have a bad credit score doesn’t mean you’re not good with money. All it means is that you’ve somehow run afoul of agencies that have a terrible track record to begin with. If they make a legitimate mistake managing your credit, it’s next to impossible to get that mistake fixed. So what do you do? You seek other options strategically.
Second Chance Rentals And Other Assisted Solutions
First, conduct an online search of your local community to see if there are any second chance rental options available. You may be surprised at what you find. If you’re not familiar, second chance rentals are leasing options which are designed to provide housing for those with bad credit, a criminal history, or other mitigating factors such as these.
There are also government solutions which can provide you assistance. Low-income housing is one such solution. You might conduct a search of your local community to determine if there are any low-income housing options available around you. Additionally, go to the U.S. government’s “HUD” (Housing and Urban Development) website.
You may qualify for low-income housing or assisted living, providing you a better unit at diminished cost. The thing about second chance rentals is that they don’t tend to be in the neighborhood that’s your first choice. They tend to have many other tenants who may be in a situation where the second chance they’re getting is an olive branch you wouldn’t expect.
Exploring Local Online Search Options
Local online options can help you to bridge the gap. Varying communities will have varying sites that they tend to gravitate toward. That said, there are options which are stratified across multiple communities and have a local flavor as well. Figure out what’s available where you are. Consider the following hyperlink if you’re looking for apartments in Frisco, Texas.
Look into the online classified sections of varying real estate periodicals in your community. Print options can be worthwhile as well, and we’ll go into those shortly. However even smaller magazines have a digital presence these days, and there may be listings there you can’t find in their printed publications.
The Digital Wild West Of Craigslist
You can definitely find a rental solution for whatever credit situation defines you on Craigslist; the question is: do you want it? Craigslist is the wild west. You’ll find people renting out tiny little rooms in mobile homes on Craigslist. You’ll find room rentals. You’ll find basement options. You’ll find RV rental options, Airbnb houses, house sitting, pet sitting, and more.
You’ll actually come across a few deals on Craigslist that are better than you could possibly find anywhere else. And then you’ll come across options which could put you behind bars if you don’t extricate yourself from the situation. So there is definitely something there, but is it predictable? No it isn’t, and going the Craigslist route could further expand your poor credit.
In terms of finding a secure place to live if you’ve got bad credit, Craigslist is a last-chance option, or a way that you can residentially tread water until you’re “on your feet again”. The thing is, you’ve got to be very cautious, and know you’re not getting scammed before you pay anybody anything. Even if you’re not getting scammed, be sure something else illegal isn’t happening.
Print Periodicals
Local print periodicals will often have classified real estate listings that aren’t featured anywhere online. You may discover such avenues incidentally through finding an internet homepage for such a site, and realizing it doesn’t have any listings; but it does ask you to subscribe.
Other ways of coming across these include visiting local businesses and checking the magazines in their racks. In such periodicals you’ll find listings from older individuals who may either disdain the internet, or have little experience with it.
Think about it critically. If you were around fifty in the mid-nineties, and had learned how to earn your living without any sort of technology, then you could make a very comfortable nest egg without ever touching a computer. Ranchers, mechanics, artisans, architects, farmers, and more are able to avoid the internet.
Now imagine you were in one of these professions, made enough to own a home, and rented it out. If you didn’t know the web, what would be your move? Well, you might just call the local paper and take out a classified ad. You might just call up that local magazine printer publishing the House Hunter periodical, and take out a slot. So don’t discount periodicals, because there are definitely listings in them you can find nowhere else.
Finding The Right Housing Despite Your Credit
Even if you’ve got bad credit, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re bad with money, or that you can’t find the perfect rental opportunities. It just means you’re going to have to get creative. Look into print periodicals, sites like Craigslist, second chance rentals, and local websites featuring real estate to get started.