What red flags are landlords looking for?
October 19, 2021
In the age of COVID-19 that we're living in renting an apartment is harder than ever! Landlords want references, credit reports, pay stubs, proof of income, criminal background checks, blood tests, addresses for the last few years, and our first born before they'll rent to us! And then they pour over everything trying to find an excuse to NOT rent to us! It's almost like they don't want any tenants and they want empty apartments instead!
What red flags are landlords looking for? Why are they asking for all of that? Isn't that intrusive into your privacy? Are they hiring private investigators to follow us around for a week on top of everything else? It's just an apartment, it's not that important. Right?
Landlords are asking for so much information because of the eviction moratoriums. A lot of scam artists took advantage of them to stop paying rent even though they were working and could afford it. And landlords like getting their paychecks, which is what rent is to them, the same way you and I like getting paid for going in to work. They're being super strict about screening tenants because they only want tenants who pay their bills. Especially since they can't get rid of deadbeat tenants once they sign the lease letting those deadbeats into their buildings. It sucks for all of us, a few deadbeats are making things bad for you and I.
So what red flags are landlords looking for? They're looking as your income on your real check stubs to see if you can afford the rent. Most landlords want to see that you earn two and a half times the rent for the apartment. I'm more cautious than that, I earn four times my rent. I don't want to run out of money at the end of the month!
Evictions are another red flag that landlords are looking for! If you gave one landlord enough trouble that they had to throw you out and you refused to leave so they evicted you it's not worth risking renting to you and risking that you'll do that again. So most landlords won't accept a tenant who has an eviction on their record. Sure, the landlord who evicted you was a slum landlord who never did anything and you didn't do anything wrong, but landlords don't care. All they care about is one landlord once had to take you to court in order to get you to leave so they're not going to risk that they'll have to take you to court to get you to leave. It sucks, but that's life.
Landlords are checking with prior landlords to see what type of tenant you were and if you were really there when you said you were there. We all need to live somewhere every day of the year so they look at your address history and if there is a gap of more than a couple of days they're going to ask where you were living during that time! And they want to talk to your prior landlord because they'll learn from your prior landlord if you were a great tenant who the landlord wishes hadn't left or if you were a troublemaker who got the cops called every weekend. Landlords don't like trouble and people who get the cops called on them are trouble.
🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩 Seeing a poor credit report is a huge red flag to landlords! If you don't pay your bills how can a landlord trust you to pay your rent to him? That's why landlords run credit checks. It's quick and cheap for them to do and a poor credit report is a 🚩 for a landlord telling them to rent to someone else. Sure they can take a chance on you but there are ten other people behind you looking for apartments so why should they take a chance on you when they can rent to someone with a good credit report instead? Would you? Nope! And neither will most landlords.
The last 🚩 that landlords look out for is criminal records. If you have a criminal record it's likely that you'll be arrested and not be able to pay the rent again. So cautious landlords are going to rent to someone else and reject your rental application. Yes, it sucks. But it happens.
Finding a good apartment in the days of COVID-19 is hard! But with Pay Stub Depot's Pay Stub Generator you can easily prove your income. That's one red flag out of your way that will make it easier to find a great apartment!
