renting a home...
 

what are your guys's views on renting homes? i'm not looking into an apartment cause the gf jams on piano too much, so what are the things to look out for while looking to rent a home? are there usually any credit requirements, or any other financial specifics, etc etc... obviously the main goal is to own a home, but i don't have very much established credit.

thanks.

Why rent what you can buy?

Even with little established credit history, you can qualify for a home loan with a higher rate to start with. Pay on that loan for a couple of years, then refinance to a lower rate.

Depends on the landlord. Some do credit checks and such, others don't care as long as you can pay. Try asking around, you probably know someone with a cool landlord that won't fuck you around too much.

You might want to look a bit more into buying a house. Almost anyone can get a mortgage nowadays, even people with ultra-shit credit. (Hint: Find a *small* bank, not some big corporate piece of shit that does everything by the book.)

For nicer houses you will generaly need credit, but sometimes not. You can always pay off your whole lease when you move into the house. I did that on my first two places (been on my own since I was 17).

If you want to live in the ghetto they will just ask you for a check stub, Or some sort of verfication of employment. Sometimes you may need references.

Previous rental history is a huge plus.
If you have good rental history along with good credit you can rent almost any place you want.

When you go into the house be sure there isn't any broken shit. If there are signs of neglect, you may have trouble getting your landlord to fix shit when something breaks.

For anything decent you'll need credit and a good income. I had to prove $6k monthly to get my place. It depends on the owner and state laws.

definitely depends. some owners are just trying to get someone in quickly and won't ask for much documentation. others will want to know everything imaginable, so be able to provide it just in case. Have atleast the first and last months rent money ready as well.

I got a beautiful rental home in a very nice neighborhood with no credit check and we were damned lucky to find it. We had some credit problems from back when we were struggling financially and we had serious problems finding a place that didn't check credit, but here is a tip for you...

Tell the landlord that you never allow your credit to be checked for rentals because every time your credit is checked and an account is not established, it knocks your credit score down. It's totally true according to all the credit books/websites. Imagine applying for 15 different houses! That could really damage a great score. The bonus is that some landlords will think that you have a killer score that you're trying very hard to protect and they'll let you get away without a credit check. Some (most) will still require the check, but it's worth trying if you think you won't get it if they DO check.

Make sure you have proof of a good income and preferably impeccable rental references. Also, offering first and last months rent plus deposit to those that only require first month's rent and deposit can help convince them to let you have it if they're serious about checking your credit, as can offering to pay for 6 months in advance if you can afford that.

I actually highly recommend leasing if you are buying an older house and you want to be sure of it and the neighborhood etc. try to lease it with an option to buy and your payments applied to the purchase.

This way you can leverage your position and the rental payments can be applied to the down payment.

Most house owners will do this if they aren't in a rush to sell.

You can do a 3 month, 6 month short term lease.

This is the best way to find problems with the house or the property.

A lot of owners even though they are required won't tell you everything in the disclosure. We were in one house here in a development called Long Lake Estates where the fucker never told us the whole development was having flooding problems during intense storms.

We moved in and came to find when the first big rainstorm hit, the entire front and back yard were turned into a lake practically. It was the worse water level problem I ever had in a house. The drainage system on our street hadn't been done right and the water from the street was flowing onto our place. The guy never disclosed anything about this to us and when I confronted him he played dumb as if it had never happened before while he lived there.

We rent and it sucks, I'd rather own. We plan to move to Arizona and we will rent a house again for a year there just to make sure we like it. I figure if you are going to rent, rent a house, same price as an apartment and it's better because of noise, it's bigger, etc.

You are better off buying. For most houses that rent around where I live, its more to rent than the mortgage payment..

Exactly

its a waste of $. its cheaper to buy than it is to rent.

Hunt for FSBO's and work out a lease to purchase option with the owner.

They'll often take only $5-6K down and make your payments a little higher than with a standard mortgage.

Most will credit $200-300 per month towards purchasing the home.

It can be a win-win situation, you can often get intoa nice house for $5-6K down and they have less risk, because they can charge more and if after a year, you're a good risk, can then sell the home and you won't have to come up with anymore downpayments.

http://www.lease2purchase.com/ is a good place to start for info on leasing to purhcase, as well as http://www.ownrent.com

Yes own dont rent...much better in the long run

you just need to shop it around and find a good deal. thats what i did ant i pay 50% less than it would cost to rent the same house in my neighborhood.