Tenant Credit Check

[Dave Mustaine]

I've owned my townhouse for 16 years and can't afford it anymore    I've had 3 different roommates here over the past 15 months and am having a hard time finding another.  I've not been happy with the roommates.   So now the tables have turned and it will be me losing my house and trying to qualify for apartments.   I need to get out.  

 If you were a landlord reviewing my credit for an apartment which of these options  would you prefer.    My credit has been perfect my entire life never missed any payments.    Credit score is currently about 710 because I have 90k in ccard debt.   But I have most of the ccard money in my brokerage account.   All 0% interest I'm always getting deals and I've never been late.   

1.   I try to do a short sale and if that fails a forclosure.   I keep paying my credit cards without missing payments.   So my credit report would show a short sale or forclosure,   They report a short sale as "paid in full for less than amount owed".  I'm not sure I would be approved for a short sale because they might consider the 80k I have from credit cards a tangible asset.   

They might expect me to use that money I borrowed on credit cards to pay the bank off at closing.  Anyone know?   Instead of looking at it as money offsets credit cards.    I think you can do a short sale without missing payments but not positive.  

2.   I sell my house and use 25k of the credit card money I borrowed to pay the deficit between sales price less fees and loan amount.   I would get out of house clean with the bank.  However, let's assume I had to default and not pay 25k of my credit cards.    This could lead to a judgment or two if they sue me?   Or maybe I could settle balances on several credit cards to get that 25k. 

In sum, would you rather take someone for an apartment that has a short sale or foreclosure but everything else was  perfect?  Or would you rather take the guy who defaulted on credit cards but got out of the house clean?  Thx.