I'm so depressed

[Anit-Credit]

I make $140k annually and I can't even get approved to rent a home. My FICO 8 scores are 613, 589, 605 (eq/tr/exp). My mortgage (5, 4, 2) scores are 635, 652, 605. My wife and I stay in an area where there is rampant crime, constant gunshots, and violence. I feel live giving up, I thought it would be simple to find a place to rent. I must be worse off than I initially thought.

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

Do you have 6 months rent you can put down?  A friend of mine didn't have great credit either and it was tough for them to find a place to rent in a decent area, until they decided to pay half their lease duration upfront.  With your scores & a clean 12-month payment history then FHA financing may be an option if you are trying to buy.

[Anit-Credit]

Thanks Shane, unfortunately, I don't have a lump sum like that. I just discovered the background company only saw one collection account from 2016 on the report. One collection account in the amount of $3174. I'm flabbergasted that this is something that could lead to my application being denied!

[ShanetheMortgageMan]

You may want to look into doing a pay-for-delete on the collection and see if that gets you anywhere.

[Red1Blue]

Did you try to talk to CA and make a settlement for pfd? Then it will be removed and your scores will be up and you can get to move to a nicer place. It is worth giving it a try to talk to CA. 

[Anit-Credit]

I skipped all that stuff because the creditor was NCA. I just offered them 30% and they jumped on it. I recieved my settlement letter and made the payment. I was a little down because I thought I had a long way to go as far as credit. I guess I was unaware that the rental agencies are so strict. I was able to get pre-approved for a $370,000 home with my credit, but I couldn't rent a home for $1895 a month. That is ridiculous!

[4sallypat]

Yes, the rental market is exploding.

We just left our house we rented for 10 years at $2500 / month and the owner just listed it for $3500 !

Purchasing our house, our mortgage is $2550 / month and we now are owners where our house has increased in value in just 2 months!

[yodi2007]

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@Anit-Credit wrote:

I make $140k annually and I can't even get approved to rent a home. My FICO 8 scores are 613, 589, 605 (eq/tr/exp). My mortgage (5, 4, 2) scores are 635, 652, 605. My wife and I stay in an area where there is rampant crime, constant gunshots, and violence. I feel live giving up, I thought it would be simple to find a place to rent. I must be worse off than I initially thought.

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I'm about in the same boat as you, except the crime isn't that bad. This neighborhood up till about 3 years ago was a nice place to live. But now they started building apartments around here and folks moved in, started playing loud music, parties every other weekend. I am a Veteran with anxiety and mild PTSD. I am irritated. I make 82k/yr except last year I made 134k. I am also fresh out of chapter 13 and plan to apply the end of January and hope my middle score goes from 613 to way higher than 620. I paid off most of my CC debt and hope to get a good manual underwriter. I say don't give up yet and keep at it! 

[tim1017]

Don't get too discouraged, there are steps you can take to put you in a position to better your situation.  I was in a very similar spot years ago and improved my situation.  We're human and make mistakes! 

[jmw1]

It's not just you. It's a very difficult rental market for renters. The landlords have the advantage right now and they can cherrypick folks with better credit and income.  If someone in the applicant pool makes $200k with no major blemishes, you are going to lose even with perfect credit. I don't know where you live, but $140k in my area is probably too low to rent a house in a good neighborhood free of gunshots.