Friday, July 12, 2013

What to expect with rental history problems

In this post I am going to explain what you are in for if you have rental history problems and are unsure why you have been declined at a property that you were interested in.

First off I am an apartment locator and I have been in the market for over 7 years and I have specialized in helping people with second chance issues for all of those years. Dallas/Fort Worth has hundreds of thousands of apartment homes, of those less than 100,000 are corporately managed and of those apartments there are about 2000 apartments that are willing to work with people with broken leases, evictions, or property debts.

The degrees of what they will work with are anywhere from debt paid in full to working with three rental history problems with no age restriction. As you can imagine there are very few apartment that will work with three rental history problems, and even less that will work with a rental history problem combined with a felony. Ultimately time is your friend in any case. The older your past problems get, the more apartment communities will work with your situation.

In any given major area in the metroplex, I can provide a list of ten or more properties to someone who has a broken lease over one year old. For an eviction it would need to be more than two years to get the same result. Anything less and your results are not going to be very many. There are properties out there that will work with someone going through an eviction, but you have to be willing to pay at least one months rent as a deposit, and your selection will be limited. Also the area will greatly affect your options, the bigger and more populated areas will have more options than the far reaching suburbs. The higher end more expensive areas will have less to no options compared to a suburb that is dense with apartments, that is fifteen or twenty minutes away from urban living.

Higher deposit is the key, the properties that work with broken leases or evictions negate the risk by taking on a higher deposit from the renter. Almost every second chance properties is going to have a higher deposit when you have any kind of credit or rental history problems. This should be expected around one months rent as a deposit when you go to a second chance property. Some will offer specials but very few right now in the given market, so just know going into it, you will have to come out of pocket in order to get approved for an apartment.

So in summary:

  1. There are thousands of apartment that will work with second chance issues.
  2. The less you owe and the older the rental discrepancy gets the more options you will have to choose from.
  3. Be open to an expanded area, and try and include a large city; Dallas, Fort Worth, and Arlington
  4. Expect to pay a higher deposit, and know it could be around one months rent.
As always I hope this information was helpful, and if you have more questions or would like free help finding an apartment, please go to SecondChanceApartment.com.

Bryan Bjerke
Spirit Real Estate

Friday, July 5, 2013

Second Chance Apartment Update

The market has turned in favor of the landlord over the last couple years and I think that it is going to change soon. With the amount of new properties coming online in the next year there should be an over abundance of units available, which is good new for all future tenants. Rents may take a while but once occupancy starts making its way back to 2008 numbers we should see them go down for he first time in a couple years.

This is also good news for second chance apartment seekers. With lower occupancy also means there is lower criteria. I think by 2015 we should have a large growth in second chance programs at properties. The same rules apply with 2nd chance issues, the further it gets in your rear view mirror the better. The properties will start by accepting property debts, and broken leases. Then some will accept evictions and in some rare cases they may start accepting more background issues.

Felonies I am noticing are extremely hard to place, in most cases I am having to refer my leads to the private rental market because either the felony is too new(less than 7 years), there is more than one, or it is in tandem with another issue like a broken lease or eviction. On the bright side I do have a new tool which has given me about 50% more properties than I had before, with more accurate information.

If you are just wanting to look around without being bothered by locators, then here is a few pages with some properties to look at:
Second Chance North Dallas
Second Chance Garland
Second Chance Mesquite
Second Chance Arlington
Second Chance Fort Worth
Second Chance Irving

But if you would like free listings and you are wanting to get a search going with a pro that has been specializing in second chance searches for almost 7 years, call me at 214.396.3888 or register on SecondChanceApartment.com

Bryan Bjerke
Spirit Real Estate