Is it essential to check your credit history before hunting for a new rental apartment? Well, most landlords go through the renters’ credit. It can make a huge difference as you search for your next apartment. A credit check involves various aspects. It ranges from finding if the renter meets the landlords’ criteria to go through tons of account histories.
It’s advisable to go through your financial history before your landlord views it. This will help you to review the reported debts and errors and fix them to enhances your scores. Fixing the mistakes in your report well ahead will help you to search for an apartment easily.
The credit checking procedure might appear to be quite mysterious for the would-be renters. Are you wondering what the landlord scrutinizes while checking your credit? Peruse on to find out in detail.
Why Does The Landlord Check The Credit Report?
Leasing agents and landlords usually go through your creditworthiness to make sure the following aspects are entirely met.
- To ensure that you hold a history of paying the rest of your bills without any delay.
- Whether you will be able to pay your rental fees on time.
By viewing your financial report, they will be able to understand the following.
- An overview of what your rental history seems to be like.
- To figure out if you have any pending bankruptcy.
- Whether you have a habit of making consistent payments without any delay.
- Do you have any debt payments that may affect your capability to make the rental payments on time?
Methods Your Landlord Can Use To Check Your Credit Score
Here are some ways in which your property manager or landlord can check your credit.
Tenant Screening Services
Certain tenant screening services provide the landlords with the tenants’ credit score report. Well, not all screening services offers this service. For instance, if you log onto some sites, the landlords can request a particular range of credit scores. You will find that the site offers them the report, which provides details if the renter exceeds or meets the requirements. It also includes details like bankruptcies, collections, eviction notices, and various other financial information.
Landlord Associations
Organizations like the National Association of Independent Landlords provide the landlords with the tenant credit reports. However, you have to pay a small fee to acquire this report. Based on the association, these credit checks may appear to be hard inquiries. It will also result in the credit scores to go down temporarily.
Credit Bureaus
TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian provide various credit screening tools for the rental industry. These services will ask the applicant to start the credit checking process. It is mostly taken as a soft inquiry and won’t affect the credit score.
How To Check My Credit Score Report?
You can visit the web portal annualcreditreport.com to get your creditworthiness free of charge. You can also acquire a free creditworthiness report on a yearly basis. This can be easily acquired from any of the 3 major credit bureaus. This is possible without paying any fees and won’t affect your credit as well. In case you wish to obtain only one bureau’s credit report, you can receive it every quarter. It will help you to check your credit score throughout the year.
Credit mistakes may take place. Hence it’s essential to go through your report regularly. Remember that different credit bureaus use different information to create your creditworthiness report. Therefore it’s advisable to go through each one of them.
Also, ask the landlord if you can bring your financial history report to their office instead of them pulling it again. Even though some may not allow it’s worth trying. Pulling the report numerous times can impact your overall credit score. That is, if your landlord pulls your report, it may lower the score by up to 10%.
Also, request your potential landlord to show the report they pulled out. It is one of the standard parts of the rental application procedure. Landlords would like to know if you’re responsible for handling your finances well. Your credit score depicts your trustworthiness and financial responsibility.
Passing The Rental Credit Check
Do you feel that you may not pass the rental credit check? Here are some ways to improve your report.
- In case of any debt, be honest with your landlord and show them how you are making progress.
- Find a trustworthy person to cosign with you. This will offer the landlord a guarantee that you will not make any rent defaults.
- Show your monthly income statement report to your landlord. This will serve as a solid proof of payment.
- Offer to make the rent payments in advance to depict your good faith and intention of making timely payments.
Conclusion
Landlords are always on the lookout for a perfect renter who makes them worry less. Whether you are a landlord or a potential tenant, keep yourself updated and look out for various scams that are making its rounds. Also, be completely prepared for a credit score check. Taking full ownership of your credit details will prepare you for the challenges ahead. Once you got your dream apartment, remember to cover all your possessions using a renters insurance policy.
References:
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2016/11/renting-apartment-be-prepared-background-check
https://www.statefarm.com/simple-insights/credit-and-loans/get-prepped-for-an-apartment-credit-check