BK & Rent

[Kim2009]

My husband is filing for BK, it is ongoing. All the landlords do credit check for renting. So my question , how I will get good house for rent , in this situation?

[falken]

Sounds like you are not filing so would you be able to apply on your own?

Its not impossible anymore to find good housing with bad credit, if you can offer extra security deposit or an extra months rent it would make it even easier.

[HHM]

Landlords rarely care about a BK. If landlords didn't rent to people with BK's and average credit, they would have 40% vacancy rates.

Don't worry about it.

[jribe]

My husband is filing for BK, it is ongoing. All the landlords do credit check for renting. So my question , how I will get good house for rent , in this situation?

i was just upfront with the homeowners.. You really can't go through a property management place- which is bad, because so many people nowadays opt for a management company instead of renting it themselves. I found my current place on craigslist. I offered to pay 2 months rent in advance and of course the deposit (1 months rent) to sweeten the deal. I was pretty discouraged when we were looking for a place about a month ago.. We haven't filed yet, but our credit is shot from the non payments...
It will just take more time- but you'll find something. Just be honest and upfront.

[SweetGeorgia]

What jribe said. More rent, more deposit, bring a landlord reference if you can get one, and deal with an individual.

I've BEEN the desperate homeowner twice lately. But even back when I wasn't desperate, I cared a lot more about a tenant's rental history than their credit. Didn't care if you stiffed Citibank, as long as you paid the rent on time.

[kenshirley]

Money does talk and landlords have many rentals today.
Just be really careful of who you rent from.
When we left our home there were many homes that we could have rented really reasonable as people needed to get out themselves.
I know many that rented these homes and paid big deposits only to find out that the owners or managers of the property were in trouble themselves and found notices on the doors of their rentals to get out within certain time frames.
And, as a result many of these people lost their last month's rent and security deposit which could be a lot of money today.
Really, know who you are renting from and try to check out their situation.
Food for thought folks.

[tatt2monster]

Everybody is right....money talks! Even with the management companies. In fact, here in Seattle, the market is so good for renters that deposits are even being waived!

[Amy26]

Yes, here in VA we have high bk rates right now. My husband and I just moved to a rental property 5 days after we filed for bk. While we were looking at apartment complexes we would ask them about credit checks etc... and most of the places were like "oh we just wanna know about your job and if you can pay your rent" ... The place we ended up going with didn't even pull my credit. They just checked to see if I had any bad rental history, checked to see if my income qualified me for the apartment and that was it.

I think with the way things are right now they are being more lenient than they used to be. I also prefered to go with a rental community rather than a "landlord" simply because of the way things are right now. I don't want my landlord coming to me months into my lease and telling me he's foreclosing and I get to live there rent free for a while... like I did to my renters... lol.

[michka1983]

I filed Ch 7 the end of April and had my 341 on June 1. During the first part of this process I was renting a room from a family member (my roommate and I had both lost our jobs late last year, forcing us to move out of our great rental house). I knew I needed to get into my own place and was so stressed that I'd never be able to rent because of my credit/BK. I'd be living alone most of the time and was very particular about the area I needed to live in for safety issues and proximity to my new job.

I did find a lot of property managers and private renters that said credit was important or they would not rent to BK, but I knew from past experience that my prior landlord (private) had never run a credit check so I knew there would be someone out there who would rent to me.

Sure enough, I found an awesome pet-friendly house in a good neighborhood in my price bracket that didn't require a credit check. Proof of income/ability to pay rent/good rental references were all I needed. I had one month's rent as deposit.