How To Get An Apartment With Bad Credit?

Having an excellent credit score is extremely important to get a lot of things done by saving money. When people have a good credit score, they get a lot of good money saving deals on insurance, personal loans, low interest rates on credit cards and even mortgages on apartments.

Importance of a High Credit Score

There are a few motivations to pursue a high FICO rating, and every one of them include saving money:

Score lower rates on auto loans: Unless you have enough money to purchase a vehicle outright, you’ll probably need to get an automobile advance. Having a good credit score can help you secure a loan with the best possible terms. Customers with the most noteworthy credit scores meet all requirements for a normal loan cost of 4.2% on another car, contrasted and 14.97% for individuals with the least FICO ratings, as indicated by Experian information.

Get credit cards with great rewards: You can fit the bill for a credit card with pretty much any sort of credit. Yet, the best credit cards regarding prizes and advantages commonly expect great to outstanding credit scores.

Qualify for the lowest rate on a mortgage: Given the measure of cash included, your home loan is the credit you’ll need to get the least financing cost conceivable on. It merits placing in the additional work to search around and arrange, as even a little rate increment can cost you a huge number of dollars over the life of your mortgage. Preparing your credit for a home loan is a basic advance in the home buying cycle.

Negotiate lower interest rates on your credit cards: If you totally take care of your credit card balance every month, your credit APR is insignificant. Yut if you’re carrying a balance, having a great credit score could help your negotiations with your lender to lower your interest rate. Getting a lower interest rate could spare you a great deal of cash.

Improved insurance rates: If you’re looking for mortgage holders or accident coverage rates, having an incredible FICO rating may assist you with fitting the bill for a lower month to month premium- except in certain states where the practice is banned.

Refinance your loans to save money: If you’ve improved your FICO rating since you opened one of your credit accounts, you might have the option to renegotiate it at a lower rate and save cash.

Apartment With No Credit Check

Everyone wants a safe apartment to live in, whether they’re studying in a new city or whether it’s a location near their workplace. But sometimes people do not get good places to live because a landlord is either not willing to rent them, or a lender is not willing to sell it to them. And the only reason for this is bad credit.

Credit checks matter because landlords want to make sure they’re renting apartments to people who will be efficient in paying back the rent every month. What to do if you’re someone with bad credit? You can hunt for apartments with no credit check.

The best way is to look online for apartments online on Craigslist, because there are a few options available. If your landlord is a single person rather than a management company, they will be more willing to overlook bad credit or not check your credit in the first place. Some management companies don’t require credit checks, but these are less common than individual landlords who don’t run credit checks.

500 Credit Score Rent Apartment

A FICO score of 500 is considered poor credit, and it is obvious that most people will have their applications rejected on the basis of this rating. Here is the general breakdown of what credit score is reasonable and which ones are absolutely poor in getting credit.

FICO Score	Rating	Description
<580	Poor	People with scores in this range are considered at high risk of delinquency.
580 – 669	Fair	People with scores in this range may have a hard time getting credit. If approved, they’ll typically pay a higher interest rate than those with better credit.
670 – 739	Good	People with scores in this range are considered acceptable, but they may not receive interest rates as low as those with scores in the higher ranges.
740 – 799	Very Good	People with scores in this range are likely to have their credit requests approved and be offered lower interest rates.
800+	Exceptional	People with scores in this range usually have no problem getting credit.

There’s no universal standard for the minimum credit score needed to rent an apartment, but according to a recent tenant screening study, rental applicants approved in 2017 had an average credit score of 650. The average credit score of rejected applicants was 538.

Now that you know your credit score is poor- let’s say 500- how to get an apartment with bad credit and eviction?

Here’s how.

How to get an Apartment with Bad Credit?

If you have bad credit, you’re definitely not getting the best deals on low monthly rent- let’s make this clear. However, there are still ways to score apartments for rent, bad credit accepted to start your life in.

The first step is to look for apartments that don’t require any credit checks. For apartments that have single landlords or people who just want to make something from rent, they usually don’t conduct extensive checks. You just need to appear responsible and tell them how you plan on managing rent each month. And make sure you do pay them too! You can find such apartments online through websites like Craigslist.

Secondly, what you can do is find a strong reference to associate with your application. If you have a strong reference who is either a friend or family of the landlord, or someone with an excellent reputation in the community, you can hope to amp up your application in front of your landlord.

Another idea is getting a roommate with a good credit score. And mind you, this isn’t too hard to do. There are lots of people in the country looking for apartments because they’re away from their families to study or to work. And if someone finds out you’re looking for a roommate which will split the rent, there will be a lot of people to tap you.

When all else fails, a lot of people look for cosigners to help them rent apartments. This is sort of a relief option for the landlord because in case you’re not able to pay the rent, the landlord can legally ask for money from the cosigner. You can get help from colleagues, friends, family members, or someone who knows you well. Just like you would use a cosigner when applying for a loan or opening a bank account, you can use a cosigner to lease an apartment without providing a credit report.

By showing proof of a steady income, you can give some guarantee to the landlord to start trusting you with the apartment and the monthly rent that comes with it. Also, if you already have a lot of debt, this option may not work for you because the landlord would know what your absolute priorities are with the income.

According to the Zillow Group Consumer Housing Trends Report 2019, 87% of renters pay a security deposit, and the typical security deposit amount is $600.Landlords may be willing to take a risk on a tenant with bad credit who is willing and able to put down a larger deposit. This can help build trust with the landlord and provide some peace of mind that you have the financial resources to make your rental payments.

Make sure to be moving in immediately because landlords don’t like empty apartments and they would want the rent to be started immediately. So if you’re moving in within 2-3 days, you can try your luck without a credit check.

How to improve Bad Credit to get an Apartment?

With the steps above, there are chances that you will be able to get an apartment with a poor credit score. But that doesn’t mean you have to live with that score forever. There are certain things that you can do in order to improve your credit rating for future ease on applications and transactions.

The first step is utilization, if you’re someone who waits until the end of the month or when the statement closes to pay off your debt, you could unconsciously be affecting your credit score. A good way to lower utilization without changing your spending habits is to pay off your balance before the statement closes.

Moreover, if it is possible, make a budget sheet of all your expenses. You will be able to determine which of these you can easily cut back on and which ones aren’t too necessary- this way you will take less credit because you would have already cut your unnecessary expenses. And this way you will be able to prioritize your rent.

Your payment history is very important while determining the credit score, and the formula is simple: pay off all your credit before the due date. As long as you’re paying off the minimum amount on your credit, you’re set. Even if you miss one payment, you’re suddenly a notch down on your credit history.

The problem with having only one credit card is that missing one payment makes your credit score ‘poor’. For example, 23 on time payments/24 total payments = 96% (Very poor). This means that a mistake you made two years ago is going to impact you today if you have one card.

Never default. If you default on your landlord, you could be in a major problem when trying to fix your credit score. A default reflects poorly on the worthiness of the credit borrower. Thus make sure you’re paying off rent each month, even if it means borrowing from a friend or family member so you don’t miss a payment.

Conclusion

Having a poor FICO score is definitely an issue, because then you can’t get hold of money-saving deals on mortgages, leasing apartments and even on personal loans. To rent an apartment, the landlord will definitely look for the tenant’s credit score as a means to measure if the tenant is worthy of credit.

The real problem starts when bad credit becomes a hindrance in renting an apartment. It may be difficult, but a person with a score below 600 may still get an apartment. There are certain ways of doing so like getting a cosigner, paying a high upfront deposit, getting a roommate with a good credit etc.

And once you get the apartment, make sure you’re paying the monthly rent orany other dues before time so that the lender is content that you’re a worthy tenant and this way you can also improve your rating for the future too.