No Job or Credit, 10 Tips To Still Get Approved For a Rental

Even when you have the money to rent an apartment, you often need help to jump through the hoops set up by landlords to secure an apartment. It’s even more difficult when you have a bad credit rating or no job to convince someone that you can continue to pay rent, despite the money you have in your bank account.

Commenters on a prominent internet forum offered tips on overcoming this obstacle and getting your own place to an unhoused user who has no rental history or job but has the money to pay for their apartment.

1. Subleasing As A Solution

One of the most popular responses to this query was that the person should try to obtain an apartment sublet from someone who wants to leave a rented unit before their lease ends.

The renter has already put their name on the paperwork, so your history is not up for debate, and they need someone to fulfill the lease terms to keep their good credit rating. So it’s a win/win proposition for now and will get you off of the streets right away.

2. Rent a Room

Another option to consider is just renting a room from a private homeowner. Owners often don’t require credit history and only need proof that you can pay the rent they want to charge. In tough economic times, people rent spare rooms to make extra cash.

Users agreed that searching on sites like Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and bodegas can help find long or short-term room rentals that could be an excellent temporary solution. In addition, owners might be sympathetic when they hear the potential renter’s story.

3. Extended Stays Can Be The Way

A significant advantage to renting at an extended-stay hotel is that hotels do not require a good credit history or employment record to make someone eligible to rent a room. Someone noted, “All they care about is whether you pay.”

Unlike most hotels or motels, extended-stay units often have working kitchens and sitting room space that could be useable as an office. A kitchen would reduce the cost of eating takeout, and you could use the sitting area to find a job and launch a new career.

4. Improving Your Payment History

A property manager suggested a more long-term solution. For example, improving your history of payments could be advantageous to finding your new place by using some cash to open a secured credit card that you can pay off monthly to create a record of on-time payments that are also important to potential landlords.

5. Pay up Front

Since the person who asked for advice noted that they had come into a large cash settlement, people offered that paying a more significant sum upfront could convince a landlord who might not be willing to rent based on credit history that you are a good candidate.

Another commenter argued that doing that was a ‘red flag” to landlords. Still, others disagreed, and someone said how offering to pay a year in advance led to a multi-year lease to an apartment where she still lives happily.

6. The Camping Life

A crowd-pleasing option suggested multiple times is buying a camper or an RV, which could be a workable solution for the homeless poster looking for a place.

One person stated that after purchasing the mobile home or trailer, your only rent is the vehicle and gas maintenance. Electrical hookups for campers are available, and you can move around the area or the country.

7. Contact an Apartment Locating Service

Two people came up with the brilliant idea of contacting a housing society or apartment-locating service and explaining your situation. One of the posters had experience with the apartment locating service, and they gave her several options that she might have yet to find on her own, even after a foreclosure.

8. Using Airbnb as a Stopgap Measure

While AirBnb is usually considered a vacation rental service, many AirBnb units regularly go empty. A person suggested contacting an Airbnb owner and negotiating a monthly rate that works for both the homeless person needing space and the owner.

9. Buy a Home

You might think that a person might run into some of the same problems that renters face while trying to purchase a home outright, but somebody stated that you could pay the tax for delinquent property in some areas on foreclosed homes.

A different option is buying a “fixer-upper” in a less desirable area you must work on to repair and improve. While it might not seem optimal, this might be a better solution in the long run.

10. Get Help From a Local Government Agency

Local government agencies already exist to help homeless or housing-insecure people find places to stay, so why not take advantage of their help? In addition, Commenters pointed out that since the unhoused poster already had money, these government agencies could get him housed quickly with their connections and the local government’s knowledge and power.

Finally, someone suggested you contact these services immediately in many places by calling 211.

This thread inspired this post.

This article is produced and syndicated on Invested Wallet.