Question by Dave C.: Rent apartment with bad credit?
OK, just a few years ago, my wife and I both had FICOs in the high 700s. But then every member of our family ended up in the hospital for extended stays for different reasons in the same year. Even with major medical insurance, the MINIMUM monthly payments on our medical bills were about equal to a years’ worth of mortgage payments. We had no choice but to file bankruptcy.
In the meantime, with both income earners being out of work for a while and our mortgage payments skyrocketing, we quickly realized that we couldn’t keep up with the mortgage payments, even if we ignored the medical bills.
In an effort to save our home, we applied through Ditech / GMAC to have our loan modified, as President Obama was throwing billions of dollars at GMAC and other banks, and begging the banks to help homeowners just like us.
GMAC sat on our request for many months, taking no action. The only contact information for GMAC loan modification was a voicemail number where phone calls were never returned. Finally after over half a year of trying to get our loan modified, we got a letter stating that we were ineligible, as a VA loan (SUPPOSEDLY) could not be modified.
So I called the VA to see if they could help me, and I was told that they could indeed help me…if I’d applied for help just a few days ago…
Basically, GMAC stalled my loan modification request until it was too late for the VA to help me through a similar loan modification program. The bastards.
To add insult to injury, now we are getting threatening letters from GMAC stating that if we are having trouble paying our mortgage, we should consider applying to have our loan modified. That’s about enough to throw me into a murderous rage…
But anyway, we are going to have to “walk away” from our home now, we have no choice in the matter. We can’t afford the mortgage payment which has doubled in the last few years, much of it the “escrow” portion (local tax increases are killing us…and we aren’t alone)
Meanwhile, before we bought our home, we (my wife and I together) rented for several years. We have excellent references from previous landlords, but we haven’t rented since like the turn of the century.
Now I’m looking for apartments, and the only ones I would want to live in (read: not in high crime areas) require credit checks. After bankruptcy and walking away from our mortgage, I don’t even want to KNOW what our credit report looks like. It’s scary, I’m sure. I might consider taking just any old apartment at first, but we have a infant daughter now. I need to get into a good neighborhood to keep her safe, not to mention keeping my wife and myself safe.
So what’s the best approach here? A “cosigner” is not an option…the only relative we know who would be willing to do it has worse credit than we do (believe it or not).
What we have going for us:
- Both employed now, earning more money (total) than we’ve ever earned.
- Good references from two previous landlords (but no RECENT rental history)
- We’ve been able to rebuild our savings to the point where we could pay a whole year in advance for rent, if necessary.
Will this be enough? We’re looking in the Southern New Hampshire area, if it matters. Manchester/Merrimack/Nashua, roughly.
On a side note, any landlords in the area willing to help us, please speak up!
Best answer:
Answer by Lulu
You poor people, that really sucks, you seem like really good people too, s**t always happens to the nice guys.
Well I think you have enough in those 3 points, what have you got to lose anyway? Best of luck.
Sorry about your home
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