What FICO score do rental agencies check?

[Anonymous]

Hi!

I have been lurking on myFico for some time and have been slowly working on rebuilding my credit. I have gone from 585 to 677 EQ over the last year and half in my Fico 8, but my Fico 4 EQ was at 620 and 638 TU.  I am not looking to buy a house, but next year I want to move to a good school district here in Chicago for my kids who will be entering kindgeration, and will be renting. 

Chicago is crazy about credit scores when it comes to renting. I got the place I am at simply because it was a private landlaord and she did not run a credit check. I did not get apprioved for anything last July when I applied for rentals (perfect rental history, $80,000 income, no pets, good refernces)because my credit ran in the low 600's.  I feel like I need something in the high 600's or 700 to be approved, or I will have very limited options, and I am hoping to avoid that.  I am okay in regards to my FICO 8 scores (or will be in a year from now)... but my Fico 4's just won't budge.

What I think is dragging those down is a $39 dollar medical collection. Other than that I have two 30 day lates from 2012, on 60 days late from 2012, and one 30 day late from 2014.

Does anyone have an insight on what FICO score most rental agencies check? When I looked at the "hard inquires" from the rental agenciesi applied through they came from real estate places like coldwell banker... Maybe they ran the lender credit check? 

[Revelate]

Impossible to say without a comparison to a known score as everyone's different, if I had to guess probably older scoring models.

Not sure on your market but here (Los Angeles) it's traditionally been more on the credit file than the score itself at least around my neighborhood from the apartment folks I've talked to over time.  Doesn't sound like your file is that bad honestly, just be ready to answer any questions that come up honestly and I don't think it'll be a problem.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi!

I have been lurking on myFico for some time and have been slowly working on rebuilding my credit. I have gone from 585 to 677 EQ over the last year and half in my Fico 8, but my Fico 4 EQ was at 620 and 638 TU.  I am not looking to buy a house, but next year I want to move to a good school district here in Chicago for my kids who will be entering kindgeration, and will be renting. 

Chicago is crazy about credit scores when it comes to renting. I got the place I am at simply because it was a private landlaord and she did not run a credit check. I did not get apprioved for anything last July when I applied for rentals (perfect rental history, $80,000 income, no pets, good refernces)because my credit ran in the low 600's.  I feel like I need something in the high 600's or 700 to be approved, or I will have very limited options, and I am hoping to avoid that.  I am okay in regards to my FICO 8 scores (or will be in a year from now)... but my Fico 4's just won't budge.

What I think is dragging those down is a $39 dollar medical collection. Other than that I have two 30 day lates from 2012, on 60 days late from 2012, and one 30 day late from 2014.

Does anyone have an insight on what FICO score most rental agencies check? When I looked at the "hard inquires" from the rental agenciesi applied through they came from real estate places like coldwell banker... Maybe they ran the lender credit check? 

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It really depends on which company the leasing company uses to do your background check. Mine used onsite manager which assigned me a renter score, based partially on my FICO score from experian but it also included a check of the courts for any past landlord disputes, criminal background, sex offender registry, terror watch list, etc

You can probably call the prospective leasing agency and ask which company they use for their background check, sometimes they even tell you up front which bureau they pull from. My previous landlord used SafeRent and they pulled my score from TU.

Best of luck on you rental!

[Anonymous]

AhmedInVA - holy smokes ... sounds like a Federal Background check. Best part then is your info gets hacked

[cashnocredit]

I own a property in TX.  We pull credit which includes a FICO score though I don't know which one. I'd have to ask the property manager since we don't care about what the FICO score is or even collections or baddies in general. We do care if there are CAs associated with rental defaults or an unusual amount of recent CAs.

[StartingOver10]

I'm a Realtor here in Florida and we use a national tenant screening co to pull the credit and background check.  For the agency I am with we use ACRANET Tenant Screening services and the score is the TU FICO CLASSIC (04). We pull full credit and background (which means nationwide eviction search and nationwide criminal record search).  All of the data comes through the same report.

Many of our condo associations and apartment complexes have minimum credit score requirements and they run their own reports as well, usually through a different source. and in addition to the info above, they report DUI's and Sex Offenders.  The minimum credit score requirments are in few condos, maybe less than ten percent, but a growning number have the requirement. The min score varies. I have seen as low as 600 min and as high as 700 minimum. I don't know what screening companies they use, because each has their source for screening which is not disclosed to the Realtor.

[cashnocredit]

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@StartingOver10 wrote:

I'm a Realtor here in Florida and we use a national tenant screening co to pull the credit and background check.  For the agency I am with we use ACRANET Tenant Screening services and the score is the TU FICO CLASSIC (04). We pull full credit and background (which means nationwide eviction search and nationwide criminal record search).  All of the data comes through the same report.

Many of our condo associations and apartment complexes have minimum credit score requirements and they run their own reports as well, usually through a different source. and in addition to the info above, they report DUI's and Sex Offenders.  The minimum credit score requirments are in few condos, maybe less than ten percent, but a growning number have the requirement. The min score varies. I have seen as low as 600 min and as high as 700 minimum. I don't know what screening companies they use, because each has their source for screening which is not disclosed to the Realtor.

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Interesting. I live in CA but also  have a condo and regular house that both have HOAs. I can rent to whomever I wish. How is it that a condo association would have any control at all over renting?  Is it like the coops in NY?

[StartingOver10]

It's awful.  They set the rules and procedures in their docs - and one of the most frequent rules is that the tenant has to be approved. Not only the tenant, but all members of the household that are 18 yrs old or older. Interviews are common - by the board or a Property Management Co. The length of time is long - up to 30 days is common.

They also set how often the landlord can rent. Fortunately most condo's don't have much of a limit, but quite a few now limit either the number of rentals in the entire complex (as a strict number of units). Another restriction is how many times a year the unit can be rented. If it is one time a year and the landlord rents for the season, s/he can't rent it the rest of the calendar year!

So lets say that a Landlord and Tenant have come to an agreement for a rental. The condo really can't prevent it unless the tenant has a criminal record or doesn't meet some other stated criteria (credit score is the next most popular turn down). Then the landlord has to find another tenant.

All I can say is, you are taking a chance if you buy a condo for investment purposes in South Florida that has rental restrictions.

I do think that the coops in NY are similar in their restrictions.

BTW, condos and HOAs are totally different in the way they are run here. Similar in some respects, but for the most part HOA communities don't have such strict rental restrictions like the condos.

[cashnocredit]

Yikes!  And I thought Calif. HOAs were overbearing.