“TAKE THE PROCESS SERIOUSLY”
by Contributor
(Jan. 24, 2019) — If it is your goal to rent accommodation in the foreseeable future, then you should know that the rental application process is never an easy one. There are a lot of trials and tribulations to face along the way, and nothing will ever be straightforward. You should also know that you’ll likely find yourself competing with a lot of other people for every apartment that you go for, too.
To set yourself ahead of this pack and force landlords to take an interest in every offer that you make, you have to stand out. To do just that, you have to put the advice laid out below into practice.
Treat your application form like it is your resume
In order to make landlords trust you with their property, they need to see that you are taking the application process and renting in general seriously. First and foremost, this means getting serious with your application form and treating it like it is your career resume.
The information that must be included on your resume-like application form is as follows:
- Your current job position
- Your salary
- Your rental history
- The contact details your current employer and your former landlord
- Letters of reference from your former landlord
- Information pertaining to any pets that you own
- Your reasons for leaving your current property
- Information regarding your prospective move-in date
- Your background check
- Details about your renters insurance
By including all of the above information in your application, landlords will see that you are someone who is serious about leasing from them. They won’t be entirely convinced, however, until they see a thorough and professionally written cover letter. This means writing more than a few sentences about why you’d like to move into that particular apartment — this means providing your potential landlord with an insight into your reasons for moving, which includes your motives for choosing that particular type of accommodation and its location.
Do some research
You’ll make yourself really stand out if you head to your rental interview actually knowing a little bit about your prospective apartment building and its neighborhood. By doing this, you will show that you have not chosen the apartment on a whim. You will prove yourself to be someone that actually wants to move in, and not as someone that has just chosen that particular accommodation as a last resort.
Dress to impress
You should also head to your interview kitted out in professional looking clobber. Dressing to impress is vital, as it will say a lot about you as a person and as a renter. By heading to your appointment in scruffy looking sportswear, for instance, you may depict yourself as being somebody who will not tend to the cleanliness of the apartment or treat it with respect. Looks very much matter, so make sure you look presentable!
Work on your credit
By having issues when it comes to your credit report, you could make getting approval for an apartment an incredibly difficult task. This is because, more often than not, landlords check credit before they make any final decisions — they do so to ensure that they don’t end up leasing to people who are going to prove to be liabilities when it comes to paying rent. Even if you were to find a landlord willing to rent to you despite you having a poor credit rating, you would probably be asked to pay more on your security deposit as compensation, anyway.
Regardless of what happens, then, bad credit is never good when you seek to become a renter, which is why you should work on your rating. One way to do so is to file a dispute – you can find more information on Crediful.com on how to set about such a task. If you believe there are issues pertaining to your credit that are inaccurate, then this is a course of action that you should take. Of course, accurate information can never be removed, whether it is dragging your credit rating through the mud or not. You shouldn’t allow questionable information to ruin your chances of being a renter, though, which is why you shouldn’t stick your head in the sand with regards to sorting it out and filing your dispute.
Standing out to landlords is often a task that renters don’t take seriously enough. Perhaps that’s why you have been turned down by landlords in the past?
Take the above advice, and make sure that the next rental application and offer that you make is accepted.