Struggles of renting with poor credit history

[Josh Borg]

I recently received a great promotion and relocation offer from my company. My salary is doubling, I'm moving to a state with no state income tax, and the cost of living is only slightly higher than my current town. 

The problem however... Is my credit score. When I was a single guy it was great, over 800! But after I married my ex wife it dropped to the upper 600s. Not good but not too bad, it's fixable though. Then the divorce started, and the costly child custody battle. I was successful, thankfully, but my credit score took a huge hit. Like, I didn't know it could be below 450 type of situation.

So now I'm here with a great job and salary waiting for me but I can't find a decent place to live. If I had to I'd just live in my car, I've done it before and it would help me get a large savings and help quickly pay off any debt. But I can't do that with a two year old. She needs a nice place in a safe area with good schools/daycare nearby. But even though the rent prices are only slightly higher than what I currently pay my applications are being denied. 

does anyone have any advice for me? I'm clearly making steps towards fixing my credit and having financial stability, but no one is willing to work with me on that. No history of damage in previous rentals, while I've had a late payment here or there I've always paid including the harsh late fees. Never underpaid or left a rental in anything but the condition it was in when rented to me. 

[Carlos Ptriawan]

you just need to talk to the property manager to handle special situation like this, most likely they will just increase the deposit. You have more luck with pop and mom investor owner rather than corporation.

[Andrew Freed]

 @Josh Borg That is a tough situation. First and foremost, work on increasing your credit limit on all of your credit lines but do not utilize any of the credit. The goal of this act is to lower your credit utilization rate to almost 0, which will increase your credit dramatically. Credit utilization rate is the largest contributing factor to credit. Also, work to eliminate any debt that you have on record. 

Regarding options, I agree with Carlos that you should try to connect with mom and pop investors via facebook market place or craiglist, see the place, explain your situation in person and "pull their heartstrings" and offer to pay double security to comfort any uneasiness. You can even offer a six month lease to show them your willing to lower the odds of needing to evict you. I think if you use this tactic and do it enough, you will find an empathetic soul out there that is willing to work with you and your daughter. Best of luck my friend. 

[Adam Martin]

I'll be honest, this is going to be tough but not impossible for you.  You are going to want to focus on smaller landlords and avoid large companies and PM's who will immediately disqualify you.  Your best bet is money talks to a lot of landlords and can help mitigate risk to an extent.  Have your financial situation in order and just go ahead and offer double deposit up front and have first months rent ready as well.  If what you say is true about you taking good care of previous rentals you will get it back in the end and the landlord will have some peace of mind knowing you have skin in the game.  Offering an extra 25-50/month rent may also tempt someone to take the chance. Be up front with your situation and let them know that you had your credit ruined in a divorce and are working on building it back but your prioritize rent.  If you have paid in the past and have digital history of it you can have this to show to the landlord.  These are short term solutions to find housing but you seem to be given a fresh start with this new job.  I encourage you to live below your means and dedicate this extra income to paying off debts and building an emergency savings so when emergencies happen you can still cover your bills and don't have to resort to credit cards which are tough to pay off.  

[Tina Tsysh]

Some of your options are:

- get a co-signer for your lease who has a better credit score

- pay rent upfront, I would say 6 or even 12 months ahead 

- it might sound weird, but offer a collateral. When my mom had a tenant with poor credit score, he offered her a very nice watch (which she had to get appraised) but after the appraisal came in, the tenant officially moved in and she never had any issues with him

Best of luck! 

[Josh Borg]

I appreciate all of the advice! I'm going to get to work on all of it tomorrow. I know I'll be able afford an additional 50 a month but the double security deposit will be a struggle at the moment. Won't start receiving my new salary until I've made this out of state move, and my relocation benefits are just enough for a mover and car hauler. Everything I'm looking to rent is below 1/3 of my monthly salary and now that my car is paid off I just have $15k of student and credit card debt to take care of! 

[Jill F.]

Take heart. You'll find something. I don't really care too much about credit score and I rent some of the nicest units around in my area. Most of the big complexes will rule you out so look outside of the big apartment complexes. You should sign up for credit karma and discover.com so YOU know exactly what your credit score is. Credit karma shows you the transunion vantage III score that many landlords use and discover.com shows you one version of the FICO-- I think the FICO8.