If you are planning to rent a house or apartment and have a past bankruptcy, there are a few things you need to know.
First, you need to determine who you plan to rent from, i.e. a private party or a property management company.
Why does that matter? Because each one tends to approach the rental process very differently. If you don’t know what your process is, you could end up losing $30-$60 in credit reporting fees.
There are a number of strategies you can use to increase your chances of being approved to rent a house or apartment. I know, because I have used them when renting in the past, both from individuals and property management companies.
I’m not going to cover every strategy here as there isn’t enough space, but here is one you can start with:
If you are applying for a rental with a property management company, find out what their rental criteria are. It sounds like common sense, but many people submit a rental application, with a non-refundable credit report fee, only to be denied due to their credit history.
Don’t let this happen to you! If you know what the criteria is beforehand and find out by asking, you’ll at least have an idea of whether or not you can qualify.
If you have a bankruptcy, it does not necessarily mean that you will be rejected. Much depends on the guidelines of the property management company. For example, a property management company may still rent from you, but may ask for a higher security deposit.
At After Bankruptcy Credit Solutions, I further elaborate on the specific strategies you can use to increase your chances of qualifying to rent an apartment or house.
I don’t have enough space in this article to discuss strategies when it comes to renting to individuals. However, it can be a very different experience than renting from property management companies.
In my experience, private parties tend to be less rigid in their rental selection process. This means that there are some things NOT to do during the rental selection process; otherwise, you could end up getting rejected pretty quickly. But I’ll save them for another article on renting after bankruptcy.
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