Frequently asked questions
Chasing the "bad credit - no problem" advertisements:
Beware. There's a lot 3rd party organizations, that for a fee, will promise to find a no credit check apartment. It's an empty promise (scam) that doesn't work, meanwhile your out the fee they charged you.
If the claim comes directly from a landlord, then maybe there is a shot at getting approved. Some landlords will make exceptions for a low credit score if income is high, your credit score is low due to unpaid medical expenses, or a co-applicant has a high score. At Rent Rabbit, a 620 or higher score is needed by all applicants. We don't make exceptions that some other landlords might.
I Have a Co-Signer
We know a lot of the landlords in the Austin neighborhood, large and small, and know of none that will accept a co-signer. You may luck out and find one, but it's unlikely at best.
Explanation: There's a good reason my score is low...
"If I can just get chance to explain to you what happened, you'll understand and approve me. There were fraudulent charges, my Mom used my name on the gas bill, there's mistakes on my report, my car should never have been repossessed."
Sometimes these explanations are no doubt true. Sometimes, no doubt, they're not. Landlords have no way of knowing who's telling the truth and who isn't. Those who aren't telling the truth are often more convincing than those who are. Landlords have no way of knowing, so they default to the credit report and credit score.
Private landlords that don't run credit Checks
There's a lot of chatter on the internet suggesting that finding a small, private landlord that doesn't do credit checks is the path to get approved for an apartment if your score is low, or you have no score at all.
It's a false hope. We work with, or know, most of the landlords in the Austin neighborhood. No credit check apartments may have been true at some point in the past, but today virtually every landlord, large or small, runs a credit check. There's just no getting around it.
I can afford the rent, I'll pay a big deposit upfront...
Just about every landlord has agreed to some version of this in the past. Sometimes it worked, often times it didn't. Not wanting to get burned again, landlords default to the credit report and credit score.