Landlords are usually skeptical about renting to tenants with bad credit and with good reason. As a landlord, I too have shared in this skepticism, having encountered tenants with less than favorable credit scores. However, I soon learnt from some persistent tenants with bad credit that there was a way to establish good faith that would stand true like good credit. In fact, through this process of establishing good faith, I was able to broaden my understanding of the causes of bad credit. If you are currently seeking to rent an apartment or other forms of property with bad credit, you may be able to relate to these causes so as to employ the enlisted strategies in overcoming bad credit when renting.
Bad credit is usually caused by poor financial decisions; financial decisions which lead to debt, bankruptcy, spending more than a credit card limit and making late payments or no payments at all on credit cards. These are the quickest ways you may obliterate your credit score which will lead to difficulties in carrying out any form of transactions which require credit scores such as renting.
However, there is another cause of bad credit which landlords seem to ignore (I too have been guilty of this) and that relates to the economic turmoil the world recently experienced. The aftermath of this is that we continue to experience rising costs in living while employees earn the same amount or are subject to lower wages. As a result, many turn to credit cards in order to meet expenses knowing that they will eventually be able to maintain those same credit cards. We all can relate to the effects of the economy on our living expenses in which some have been able to come back more than others.
Nevertheless, landlords have been very cautious in renting to tenants with poor credit scores. This is even so if a tenant with a low credit score opts to move unto the property right away as opposed to a prospective tenant with a good credit score who is unable to move in until a month or two. Nonetheless, I have found that by stating my discrepancies with tenants with bad credit, it has given them a chance to address these individual discrepancies with solutions, those resulting in useful strategies.
Honesty here also relates to including a signed statement explaining the deficiencies in your credit report. As honesty builds trust, this strategy is the first step to building such trust.
In the past, I have been willing to allow a tenant with bad credit to rent my premises by providing me with written references from previous landlords. It would be great if these references could highlight your promptness in paying rent. This goes a far way in building trust and establishing good faith.
