Help! Is my score going away in September?!

[Anonymous]

One of the managers I talked to in my apartment quest told me it was illegal for them to take a higher deposit than they were asking for.  He said that people often offer to do such a thing to be competitive and that they couldn't allow it.

You certainly cannot tell them to pull a certain CRA.  They all have their individual methods, which includes which report they pull and how they analyze it.  Just ask!!!

[Anonymous]

I can afford to pay 3 months rent in advance- I have a fairly large relocation bonus from the company I work for. Does it look suspicious if you offer this, though?

RevMen- I do have a WSR account, but so far none of the places I'm considering will except their "freeFICO." I'll go ahead and do that now, though, in case they will.

I'm look in the San Fernando Valley and areas surrounding the studios. I'm mostly looking for a cheaper studio apartment or 1br, but looking to be somewhere safe. I could do the roommate thing if I had to, but I'm kind of tired of that from college. I think the landlords require both roommates to apply anyway, though, so that wouldn't make much of a difference, I'd still have to get approved.

[Anonymous]

---

RevMen wrote:

One of the managers I talked to in my apartment quest told me it was illegal for them to take a higher deposit than they were asking for.  He said that people often offer to do such a thing to be competitive and that they couldn't allow it.

You certainly cannot tell them to pull a certain CRA.  They all have their individual methods, which includes which report they pull and how they analyze it.  Just ask!!!

---

Oooops, well I'm certainly not encouraging illegal behavior.  I thought you could pay the deposit and then pay seveal months' rent in advance.  And I was thinking more of private landlords than complexes.

If you get rejected because of your credit, they are required by law to tell you which CRA they consulted and to give you the contact address so you can get a copy of the report.  It may not be EX, EQ or TU; there are consumer reporting agencies that are just for rental history.

[Anonymous]

Another thing you can do is simply print out your own credit report and take it with you to view the apartment.  You can show it to the landlord and ask them if anything on there would disqualify you.  That way you both know right away whether it's even worth filling out the application (which is no small deal, I filled out at least half a dozen of those stupid things).

Again, my advice is to just ask and be upfront.  They know what they're looking for and they'll be happy to tell you.  There's no reason for them to keep it a secret.  They're going to pull your credit no matter what, so there's no point in pretending that your credit looks anything unlike it does.  If they see you're a reasonable, realistic person, it will reflect better on you.  All the landlords really want is someone who will pay their rent on time every month and who won't disrupt other tenants or destroy their property.

It actually turned out that the manager of my new apartment didn't even pull my credit.  I had several conversations with him and explained exactly what was on my credit and why.  I told him a lot about me, my career, and my girlfriend who was moving in with me.  After he met her he decided to accept us on the spot without checking our background or credit simply because he trusted us.

Unless you're applying at a big complex somewhere, getting an apartment in LA is completely unlike getting a credit card or mortgage from a huge company.  Most places are owned by individuals or small partnerships and they're just looking for someone they can trust, so there's no reason to be anything other than completely honest.

[Anonymous]

masdeocho wrote:

Oooops, well I'm certainly not encouraging illegal behavior.  I thought you could pay the deposit and then pay seveal months' rent in advance.  And I was thinking more of private landlords than complexes.

If you get rejected because of your credit, they are required by law to tell you which CRA they consulted and to give you the contact address so you can get a copy of the report.  It may not be EX, EQ or TU; there are consumer reporting agencies that are just for rental history.

Before I moved into my first apartment I knew I had horrible credit and I didn't even want them to pull my CR. So instead I paid 6 months in advance and all was well.

[Anonymous]

That's probably a good idea to just bring a copy of the credit report and show it to them. That way they may not even do a credit check, or if they found something different on the report that they get from a CRA, I could explain it to them- I don't think most people consider it a crime to have shared a credit card with your parents while you were in college. I would hope that most people could tell just from meeting me that I'm going be responsible and respectful and not really need the whole credit check thing, but you never know. I mean, with as many people competing for apartments as there seem to be out there, they kind of have their pick of whoever they want.

Thanks for your advice!

[Anonymous]

From what I understand, landlord credit checks usually look for the following (roughly in order of importance):

1. Evictions
2. Collections caused by bad checks
3. Other recent, open collections or charge-offs.
4. BKs in the past three years or so
5. Really low FICO (below 525 or so)

Your track record with your current landlord counts for a lot too. My landlord probably wouldn't even mention the time I was late with the rent...instead he would talk about how my roommates and I never cause any trouble, have never had any loud parties or the cops called, etc., etc.

If you can independently verify even two or three years of trouble-free rental history, that can go a long ways toward getting around your marginal credit score. Landlords do NOT repeat NOT like to have to do behavior-driven evictions, and if you can show that you're not in that crowd, your odds of becoming a tenant increase markedly.