Anyone having a hard time finding a rental?

[imbroke2]

Background here-my husband and myself, 3 school-age kids & 2 pets (smaller dog & cat); husband lost job several times over a 3-year time period; filed ch 13 originally to save house, converted to 7 in November when we couldn't keep up with the large mortgage payments (taxes increased). We're about 60K underwater + behind payments. So needless to say we thought surrendering the home in the 7 and walking away & finding a rental would be OK. Well, we are having the toughest time finding a rental-from a realtor or craigslist & other sources. I feel like a couple of times we were discriminated against-comments like the family is too large to fit in the home. Um, not everyone needs a bedroom for every member of the family! I wouldn't have applied if I didn't think we could fit (someone doesn't like kids or maybe pets & would prefer only one or the other?) I understand concern over the credit thing, but now that we have at least 6 months+ rental payments saved & steady jobs, why, why, why is it so hard? We have several references including a past landlord and people I've known 20+ years.
On a side note, we did have a house that someone was willing to rent to us, but unfortunately it was in one of the worst school districts in the state and I have a special ed child.
All we're looking for is a decent 3-bed house, 1 1/2-2 baths with some kind of a garage. Is that so hard?
Okay, now that I got that off my chest, anyone in the same boat?

[Over our heads]

I am soon to be in your boat. Our house is in mid foreclosure/short sale, and soon we will be looking for a rental.

We too have a SN child, so the school district is of extreme importance to us as well. We have 4 kids, 2 cats and 2 dogs. While we have the option of moving in with my mother for a bit (ugh) you can imagine that that senario is less than appealing!
Well, at least to us adults it is, the kids of course would just love to live with grandma. My biggest fear is that we will have to re-home our dogs, as they are imo mid-sized dogs, at 50 pounds a piece. And the honest truth is that our cats might not survive a move, they are old for cats! 12 and 15.

The right thing will come along, just keep looking!

[willsurvive]

We haven't officially started, but will be looking this summer. I have many of the same concerns you have though. We have 5 kids, and 1 cat. Plus my husband is unemployed (I'm working). I know it will somehow all work out, but it's the stress of the unknown that is killing me. Good luck!

[imbroke2]

LOL Over our heads! The mother thing cracked me up because that is what is worrying me the most! I don't want to wind up with my parents who have to have the TV cranked so loud the entire neighborhood can hear it because my dad can't hear a darn thing. And I need to have some type of internet installed and we'd be stuck in the room next to theirs...ugh I just can't even imagine! NO, That's not going to happen! We are going to find something!

[Over our heads]

I tell you, it is every child's worst nightmare. Having to move back home!

To be honest, my mom isn't that bad, she is a horrid "poor me" type personality, but let's face it. I have her beat at the moment! There surprisingly is just barely enough room for us, the problem for us is that she and her partner are both heavy smokers.

One of our daughters constantly gets sick if we spend more than a few hours in the house, not to mention the stench on our clothes. I imagine I will be purchasing at least 2 heavy duty air purifiers/cleaners, as well as spending a lot on dry cleaning for hub's suits!

I would rather live in my dad's cramped tiny unfinished basement, but he unfortunately lives in the worst school district possible.

[norcal]

I had a hard time finding a rental also. It took me over two months and though the actual sale/foreclosure is still over a month away, we jumped on this rental and signed the lease as soon as the landlord said he was willing to rent to us.

I spoke with I don't know how many people and told them about the bk and foreclosure, and they were fine with that part. It became an issue when we showed up to look at the place (just two of us at the most) and I let them know there were 8 in our family and a medium sized dog. I never got called back, except for the one we ended up renting.

I think it made a difference that this was an individual renting and not a company (but there were a couple of individuals also that didn't like the size of our family). I didn't bother telling them that it was discrimination, because they would just say it was our credit, being the problem.

Keep looking and don't lose faith. This home is the last area I wanted to be in, but the home is beautiful and the neighborhood is quiet and I guess I just feel that this is where we're supposed to be for the time being.

[ryan]

Maybe this will help: I used to be a landlord of single family homes in another life, and will soon be in same position as you are, looking to rent myself.

I would think larger family size may be more of an issue than credit history. I never ran credit on anyone, btw. Had good tenants and bad tenants. I looked for steady pay, and larger deposits for more 'iffy' people. Landlords today are also worried about discrimination charges, so most will not be candid sometimes as to why they said no.

Tips: Wash your car, make it look great if you will be shopping rentals and using it to get around. Dress up a bit and be very polite. But also, use some psychology. Suggest that ..."you've already identified 2 nice places and were just trying to see if there was anything with a BLANK (insert feature) that was better."

Give the landlord the feeling that OTHERS are fine with your family size, credit, job history - whatever. You're just hoping to find a bigger back yard, for instance.

Be prepared to offer a larger cash deposit. I was always swayed by that. These property guys have cash flow concerns and as individual owners cannot stand a vacant place long.
...or offer to sign a longer lease. If the place needs some repairs but is in the area/school district you like, offer to do them.

You'll laugh, but I would even bring some nice pictures of your old place (in tip top shape of course) show the landlord how perfect it was.

There are many ways to skin a cat. You can find a nice rental. I KNOW i will.

[flower04]

Ok, have been there. I would suggest trying to sign a longer term lease, showing stability. Also, pets were a huge deterent for several landlords we talked to even though they said they would accept them (we don't have any pets). We are moving in a few weeks to a great rental in a great area but the price was about $200 higher than what we originally wanted. We had to comprimise. No cable tv and only brown bag lunches for the hubby, but this home is everything we could've dreamed of.

In our area, no property management comp will rent to us because we are in a 13 and haven't been discharged. It was not an option to have a co-signer, so that was out. We started looking at craigslist, but you have to be careful--sometimes if it is too good to be true, it is. Basically, we could only look at 1/4 of the homes that were rented by individuals. We actually applied for 4 homes, 2 of which charged $60, 1 charged nothing, and the other $25. We were accepted for 2 out of the 4.

This was our strategy. We would talk to them over the phone first and tell them that our home was in a short sale situation (it isn't on the market, but could be...). If they seemed willing to work with us with an additional deposit, we would proceed. Then, the whole family would go see the home. This was a pain. We only did this for about 10 of the homes, the rest just hubby went. Schools were very important to us as daughter has special health needs and sure enough, the cheaper rentals were in the bad areas.

The trick for us was to be on craigslist every day, several times a day and be the first to get there to see it and submit an application. We missed out on some great homes because we coudln't get there in time.

We also had a letter that we would submit with our application explaining our financial situation and why/how we got there (medical bills for daughter). At the bottom of the letter was a photo of our family. We also had a picture of our current home (inside and out) so they could see that we would take care of their home. This was especially helpful with out of town landlords.

In the end, it was very stressful time and I did feel discriminated against because people would say, "Oh..." and sometimes more and sometimes you'd just get that look.

Just so you know, the one we choose, we were the 6th applicant to apply and we thought it was a long shot, especially because of our credit, but they loved our honesty and no-nonsense approach. They loved seeing our family and how we treated things (always take off shoes, etc.). In the end, just being ourselves won us the home. We signed a 2 year lease the same day we saw the home.

I hope you find what you are looking for soon and I hope this helps you. It took us about 8 months to find the 'perfect' rental that felt like HOME and NOT like a RENTAL!

[norcal]

Flower04:

I like what you had to say. Being honest and upfront is what got us the lease on this home. The landlord appreciated me bringing my credit report ( I was the only applicant that did) along with our proof of income. I talked to him before going to see the house and was very upfront (family and all). We are only his second tenants in this home (current tenant was very nice), so that probably helped. It is 2 1/2 times the size of our current home, it's going to be wonderful for all of us to have space. We are looking forward to a fresh start. Good luck.

[frogger]

What I always looked for was:

1. Volume and stability of income.
2. Size of family.
3. Pets

All of these can be dealbreakers. If you don't have enough income, or haven't been at your job long enough, I would not consider you to be stable as a tenant. If you have a lot of kids, the wear and tear on a rental is incredible. And pets? Wouldn't even consider a tenant with pets going into one of the nicer places. Carpet is expensive and pets have accidents.

[imbroke2]

We are mostly using our realtor; she's doing a great job. We are offering extra months rent + security deposit (whatever they're requesting) + pet deposit along with signing a 2-year lease. We have 3 referrals (including an excellent one from a prior landlord), our hardship letter and a letter from our realtor (who we've known for 7 years). I've been working for 10 years at the same place and my husband has now been employed over 1 1/2 years. Sooo, I'm definitely thinking most of it is family size and/or having more than 1 pet. I know we'll find something; it just gets a little discouraging.

[frogger]

One other thing, you could invite any prospective landlord to your current residence, or at the least, take pictures of it.

Your 3 kids could be little angels or they could be little hellions.