Renting an Apartment After Foreclosure

This post is for those homeowners who have decided that they can not keep their current home and are seeking to move on, instead of trying to stop foreclosure. This may be due to a new job in another state that requires a move, a precipitous drop in income, or other circumstances. Because of their poor credit from the foreclosure, however, these homeowners may have a difficult time being able to rent an apartment. New landlords will not want to discover the fact that the homeowners are currently behind on their mortgage payments. That will indicate to them that they do not take their housing payment obligations very seriously. The foreclosure victims will have to find a way around the credit check somehow.

One way they can do that is to find a landlord that they know, or talk to someone (friends/family) in the area that they will be living in, and ask if they know of anyone that would allows apartment rentals without a credit check. The key is for the homeowners to let them know that their credit is not great at the present time, and that they are not willing to damage it even further with more inquiries, but that they want to have an opportunity to start recovering their financial situation. A lot of landlords will be reasonable if the situation is explained to them very clearly.

If they foreclosure victims do not know any friendly contacts in the area, though, they will have to offer the landlord an incentive to decide not to pull their credit histories. For this purpose, they can offer an extra amount as a security deposit, or offer to pay an extra 2-3 months rent up-front, in exchange for the landlord not conducting a credit check. If they need a "cover story," they can use the one in the paragraph above, or simply inform the landlord that they are very private and do not want to give out their social security number and financial information to anyone, since they have been a victim of identity theft in the past. Extra cash in the form of a security deposit or extra rent will usually help the landlord see things from the foreclosure victims' perspective.

The important point is to concentrate on the desire for personal and financial privacy, or the homeowners' intention to begin repairing their credit because of recent, unavoidable financial hardships. As well, it helps to offer the landlord a reason to trust them at their word. These tactics should take care of many of the problems for foreclosure victims attempting to rent an apartment, although they may have to speak with several different landlords who will lend an understanding ear in this situation. Money talks, though, and most landlords, for the right price, can be persuaded not to pull a credit report on applicants.

It is unfortunate that not all homeowners are able to save their homes from foreclosure, but each situation is different and needs to be dealt with in the homeowners' best interests. When there are no options left to prevent the foreclosure, or the foreclosure victims do not want not keep the property but can not unload it, adding another level of problems in trying to rent a new apartment just continues the humiliation and rejection that so define foreclosure situations. But even in these cases, with a small amount of planning and a financial incentive, the homeowners can get a fresh start and gain some control back over their financial lives.