Here are 7 points of review. Property managers and landlords review these when you apply for a lease.
- household income 3 times the amount of the rent
- credit score
- are you moving within the next 30 days or less
- do you have any broken leases or evictions in the past 7 years
- do you have any criminal history in the past 7 to 10 years
- are you wanting a minimum 12-month term
- are you going to use the space for a corp rental or AIRBnB
Let’s get into a few details about each of the 7 topics above.
Lease Income Requirements
Monthly income must be three times the rent. If the rental you are applying for is $2,000 a month your gross income needs to be $6,000 or higher.
Landlords or property managers will verify this info with your employer and at the time of application you will need to provide 60 days paycheck stubs.
Self employed applicants will need to provide two years’ tax returns.
If you are wondering how much you can afford, a rule of thumb is 25% to 30% of your gross income, a great resource for examining these expenses can be found at MyHome by Freddie Mac.
Lease Credit Requirements
A 620 or higher credit score is needed.
Depending on the property, the landlord or property manager they may sometimes work with a tenant if it is slightly below 620 by requiring a double deposit or consider a co-signer, but most of the time anything below a 590 is an automatic denial.
A great tool to monitor your credit score is Credit Karma, it’s very easy to use and FREE!
Timeframe
Every day a rental property sits vacant, the landlord loses potential rental income, filling the vacancy quickly ensures steady cash flow. To make your application more attractive, be sure to list your move in date within 30 days or less, the sooner the better.
Broken Leases or Evictions
If you have a broken lease, eviction on your record, or if you owe any property money for any reason, within the past 7 years it is almost 100% an automatic denial. There is a special database in addition to credit reporting and background checks that is just for broken leases and evictions; sometimes it won’t show up on your credit report but is still in the Evictions database.
Criminal Background
This can vary from property to property, owner to owner, but many places will not accept felons; other criminal activity will need to be fully explained. It’s best to disclose this fully prior to application and see what the property’s rules on working with this.
Lease Length
Many properties do offer short term leases, 3 month, 6 month and 9 month, but at a steep price. Sometimes as much as 3 to 4 times the normal 12 month rent rate. This article is written for more mainstream, tradition leases and tenants and for the purpose of getting approval and we suggest asking for a minimum 12 month lease.
Corporate Lease and AirBNB
It’s rare to find an owner, property or property manager that allows corporate leases or AirBnB sub leasing. Like above, this article is written for more traditional applicants who want to occupy the property and not sub lease it out, so this should be a non issue.
If you are planning on sub leasing the property this needs to be fully disclosed prior to signing the lease.
Leasing a residential rental property is pretty straight forward and easy. If you have any questions feel free to contact Kevin via text at 469-583-2527 with your question and he will get back to you as quickly as possible.