What To Expect When Applying For A Rental Home

The  rental market here in South Florida is strong and rental prices have steadily climbed higher. When you’re in the market to find a new place to rent you need to have all your ducks in a row. Here’s a list of things you will need to do to get your application approved by the Landlord.

1. You need to determine how much you can afford per month. Most Owners/Landlords are looking to see if you have three times the rent. So if the rent is $1200/month than total household take home income should be greater than $3,600/month.
2. Next you will need to fill out an application for residency and get a credit/ criminal background and evictions report. The application for residency provides basic information about you, who will be staying in the rental property , where you are living now, where you work etc. This helps paint a picture to the landlord of who will be renting their property. The credit/ criminal background and evictions report will provide your full credit report and credit score, criminal activity report and any evictions if any you have. If you do have a criminal background or an eviction on your report the chances of you finding a place to rent just got even harder for you. If you are working with a realtor they can help you get this report. Typically you are looking to spend around $50 per person over 18 for this report.
3. You will also need to provide a copy of your driver’s license and prove your income with recent pay stubs or bank statements. If you are Self employed, you will need to provide your most recent tax returns.
4. Once you know how much you can afford and have verified you have three times the rent and proof of your income, you need to sit down with a Realtor to start the rental search. They can guide you to find a place that will meet most of your needs such as location, type of home, price, amenities and school districts if you have children. Other than paying for the credit report working with a Realtor is free to you since the landlord owner will generally pay their commission.
5. Once you’ve located a place with the Realtor, the Realtor will prepare your offer on a document known as the contract to lease which states the terms of your offer such as when the lease term will start, who will live there and how much you are offering them. The Realtor will prepare a package to present to the owner which will include The contract to lease, application for residency, credit/background report, copies of your driver license  and your proof of income.
6. The Realtor will submit your offer usually to the listing agent of the rental property. the owner will review your offer package and give an answer as to yes or no if they will rent to you. If you’ve prepared the package properly your chances are very good they will accept your offer.
7. If the Owner accepts your offer you will need to apply for any Homeowner association if any and on the day you get your keys you will need to provide cleared funds in the form of bank/cashier’s checks. Personal checks are generally not acceptable.
8. That’s it. You’ve prepared your documents made your offer to the owner, they accepted and then you close on the rental. Now all you have to do is move in.

Most of the time working with private owners might be a little easier to work with but sometimes if you have challenging credit or circumstances, rental an apartment from a rental complex might be in your best interest especially if you have limited funds. Some of these place don’t require a full month security deposit and might not even collect the last month’s rent. Typically you would have to find these on your own since most rental communities do not cooperate with Realtors.

If you would like to work with us in finding a place to rent give us a call or send us an email to let us know what you’re looking for.