Trying to get first apartment in NYC

[Anonymous]

Born and raised in NYC and now it's time I move on my own. I missed up my credit when I was younger and now I'm building it back up. My scores are 609 TU 608 EX 600 EQ. Around this time last year I was around the 490s. I'm almost done paying off my old collections and I have two credit cards that I pay off every month. I just wanted to know what are your experiences in getting an apartment in NYC, I know the market here is very tight but I keep hearing different stories of what is required.

[Anonymous]

You might have some issues. Just depends on what type of rental you're looking at. Your scores are very borderline. Most rental apps will have a minimum required score. Some are as low as 600, while others require 700 or above. I'm not sure why your scores are as low as they are, but if they were mid 400's last year, I'd assume you had some derogs that are listed on your CR's. The rental company will see these and depending upon what they are, may ask for answers to them. There's a good chance IF they'll rent to you, they may require additional deposits. If you have any judgements or evictions listed, you can "fogetaboutit", unless you plan to rent in a very bad, low income, area. So sorry to be so negative, but with tenant reports available, your credit reports are not the only thing you need to worry about nowadays when looking to rent.

[Anonymous]

The only judgement I have was a state tax lien for $500 that was paid. Would that be a "fogetaboutit"?

[Anonymous]

Nope. I meant a judgement from a rental or eviction. If it's a paid judgement, you have no worries there. But your scores being close to 600 may. It just depends on their requirements. Be ready to explain what happened or why you had past derogs. Hopefully they'll understand. It'll probably come down to vacancy. If they have lots of open rentals, you'll stand a much better chance. If they have hundreds of applications and only a few open rentals, we'll, you can figure out how that'll go. I wish you the best. I just went thru this and it pretty much sucked. I haven't rented in years, but the applications, amount of information they request, and the "tenant reports" they pull, are quite intrusive. They want ALOT of information.

[Anonymous]

When I had last looked for an apartment in NYC I had a score of 620. My income was more than sufficient for the place but with that score, they wanted a cosigner. Another building didn't care what my score was, as long as there wasn't a collection from a previous rental. 

[SunriseEarth]

I'm not sure what requirements are like in NYC, but I know out on the West Coast, leasing offices tend to be quite open about FICO score requirements.   You can always ask to see about getting that info.   As for raising your scores, you may want to look at the Understanding FICO Score section to make sure you're using your CCs to your advantage as much as possible for optimal scoring.   Definitely keep working the baddies, too! 

[Anonymous]

I'm near Chicago and going through the same thing right now and almost identical scores to yours... 599,608,611... its competetive around us because of the school district, everybody wants in this neighborhood... Here they definately want to see income at least 3xs the rental price. Usually last 2 paycheck stubs, the more references you can give the better, Its not my first rental so at least I have the advantage of a landlord reference and current utliity bills to help combat the score problem but what I find here is looking at places for rent by owner gets you much farther than looking through the real estate rental listings (which the majority of the rentals in our neighborhood are) Places for rent by owner seem to have much more tolerance for lower scores/exceptions, especially if you make a good first impression. Thats your best opportunty to make a connection. We look at a lot of rentals through Real Estate Agents and they feed the paperwork to the landlord/owner for a decision. I hate that someone is sizing me up and making a decision on where my family will be allowed to live based only the credit report. Some will look at the score or income and flat out say no, others might be willing to take the risk if you sign a longer lease term, pay 2 months up front or get a cosigner..  Whatever you do, I'd be as honest up front as possible that you are rebuilding. They will find out anyways once they run the check so they may as well hear it from you first and hopefully give you recommendations of what they would need that would build their confidence in taking you on as a tenant.

[Anonymous]

Thanks. I'm going to pay off the few collections I have left so when my credit report is checked it shows everything is paid off.

[ACG23]

I've written before on this, but in case you're still curious or others are looking, I think income matters more than recent credit, and recent credit matters more than past credit. I hope it worked out for you!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks. I'm going to pay off the few collections I have left so when my credit report is checked it shows everything is paid off.

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Most rental places are only going to be concerned about property related collections - unpaid rent/leases, utilities, phone services, ect.