With all of the short sales and foreclosures taking place borrowers are wondering how to rent with bad credit. Prospective Tenants have their credit pulled as part of the application process prior to the real estate anomaly, a low credit score would result in being declined. However, with the over whelming number of people losing their homes in distressed sales, owners and property managers find themselves making concessions

In a post How to Rent a Home if You Have Bed Credit, Tamara Holmes reported, “According to a 2009 survey by Rent.com, 81 percent of property managers have seen a decline in the credit worthiness or credit score of prospective renters, and due to the shift, 43 three percent of landlords reduced their credit policy standards in order to fill vacancies.”

Karen Gunn-Bardot, Broker-Manager of Showcase Property Management a long time property manager says, “many of the people who have lost their homes are good people who just hit hard times. If a prospective tenant just has a blip on their credit report associated to a distressed sale situation, and no derogatory or criminal issues, I go to bat for them with our owners.” What prospective tenants need to understand is, owners are the ones that approve or decline. Karen went on to say, “most of the people who I have rented to that came from a distressed sale have turned out to be some of my best tenants.”

Prospective tenants should have a letter prepared explaining their situation and expect to pay first and last months rent, along with a security deposit. Also have, references you can provide, and a copy previous positive credit report, showing your credit score, if you have one available.

Filed under: Blog