Renting Property
Oct 7th 2013, 12:08 pm
#1
Just Joined
Thread Starter
Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 2
Renting Property
Sorry if there are existing threads on this, I can't find any.
What do I need to know to rent property in the US as a Brit?
I'm aware there is usually an application process but what information is required? What do I need in lieu of a US credit rating?
Thanks Folks,
What do I need to know to rent property in the US as a Brit?
I'm aware there is usually an application process but what information is required? What do I need in lieu of a US credit rating?
Thanks Folks,
Oct 7th 2013, 12:31 pm
#2
MODERATOR
Joined: Nov 2006
Location: Hong Kong, mostly.
Posts: 5,214
Re: Renting Property
Varies with the landlord. A big building with professional management will want a government id, proof of a job and a credit check. A small landlord may just rent to you with a handshake and a simple lease.
Generally some id and if you have no credit a letter from work outlining your salary might work.
Generally some id and if you have no credit a letter from work outlining your salary might work.
Oct 7th 2013, 12:34 pm
#3
Just Joined
Thread Starter
Joined: Oct 2013
Posts: 2
Re: Renting Property
Varies with the landlord. A big building with professional management will want a government id, proof of a job and a credit check. A small landlord may just rent to you with a handshake and a simple lease.
Generally some id and if you have no credit a letter from work outlining your salary might work.
Generally some id and if you have no credit a letter from work outlining your salary might work.
Oct 7th 2013, 1:10 pm
#4
Mouthy Yank
Joined: Oct 2012
Posts: 2,229
Re: Renting Property
I have been a long-term tenant at my apartment complex, and when my husband came over from the UK, we had already arranged for the office to do his criminal background check a few weeks previously. Most large complexes will run one and you will in most cases not be able to rent if you have a felony record that shows up on their background check. No credit or job or ID was required, other than a copy of his passport, because they simply used my pay to calculate eligibility, and naturally I already qualified (this complex requires you to have an income at least 3.5 times the rent, figured by the month). If the OP were joining a spouse, it would be easy.
Roommate situations may require each roommate to separately be able to guarantee the rent. In my experience an arrangement can often be worked out where you pay the deposit and the first and last months' rent in advance. You can also perhaps get a short lease of three to six months and prepay all rent in advance; they cannot refuse you for financial reasons under those circumstances. Lack of credit does not seem to be a serious issue; bad credit does. You can always negotiate.
Roommate situations may require each roommate to separately be able to guarantee the rent. In my experience an arrangement can often be worked out where you pay the deposit and the first and last months' rent in advance. You can also perhaps get a short lease of three to six months and prepay all rent in advance; they cannot refuse you for financial reasons under those circumstances. Lack of credit does not seem to be a serious issue; bad credit does. You can always negotiate.
Oct 7th 2013, 3:26 pm
#5
BE Site Lead
Joined: Aug 2004
Location: MA, USA
Posts: 92,170
Re: Renting Property
50 different states and then markets within those states will determine what's required and what's allowed by law.
If you're in Boston and use a realtor to find a place or the landlord uses one to find a tenant, you'll pay the fee and it can be anything from 1-3 months worth of rent. If you're way out in the burbs it might be a half months rent. In other states the landlord would pay if they use one.
Then after a background credit check, you'll have to put down on signing, first months and last months rent, along with anything from 1-3 months worth of rent for a deposit that is returnable and any realtor fee.
As you'll have no credit history, if they don't just ignore you out right, then you might be asked to pay anything up to 3 months of rent in advance.
You'll have more luck with a private landlord than a complex/condo.
Credit check can cost anything from $20-60 usually and if you're asked to do one, you should be allowed to use the results of that on another rental application if the application is made within 5 days of getting the credit check done. The fee is not going to be refundable if you don't get the application accepted.
Usually find a minimum of a 12 month lease, especially in places of snow, where they don't want to find the place empty over winter. Can find shorter rentals but they tend to be much higher cost.
To the point above about lack of credit not being an issue, well it can if the market is busy. When we got our place, there were already 10 other couples interested and the place before we were interested in already had 17 applications for it and the landlord simply just won't bother with anyone that doesn't have any history because they can afford to cherry pick what they think is a safe bet.
If you're in Boston and use a realtor to find a place or the landlord uses one to find a tenant, you'll pay the fee and it can be anything from 1-3 months worth of rent. If you're way out in the burbs it might be a half months rent. In other states the landlord would pay if they use one.
Then after a background credit check, you'll have to put down on signing, first months and last months rent, along with anything from 1-3 months worth of rent for a deposit that is returnable and any realtor fee.
As you'll have no credit history, if they don't just ignore you out right, then you might be asked to pay anything up to 3 months of rent in advance.
You'll have more luck with a private landlord than a complex/condo.
Credit check can cost anything from $20-60 usually and if you're asked to do one, you should be allowed to use the results of that on another rental application if the application is made within 5 days of getting the credit check done. The fee is not going to be refundable if you don't get the application accepted.
Usually find a minimum of a 12 month lease, especially in places of snow, where they don't want to find the place empty over winter. Can find shorter rentals but they tend to be much higher cost.
To the point above about lack of credit not being an issue, well it can if the market is busy. When we got our place, there were already 10 other couples interested and the place before we were interested in already had 17 applications for it and the landlord simply just won't bother with anyone that doesn't have any history because they can afford to cherry pick what they think is a safe bet.
Oct 7th 2013, 4:32 pm
#6
Mouthy Yank
Joined: Oct 2012
Posts: 2,229
Re: Renting Property
50 different states and then markets within those states will determine what's required and what's allowed by law.
If you're in Boston and use a realtor to find a place or the landlord uses one to find a tenant, you'll pay the fee and it can be anything from 1-3 months worth of rent. If you're way out in the burbs it might be a half months rent. In other states the landlord would pay if they use one.
Then after a background credit check, you'll have to put down on signing, first months and last months rent, along with anything from 1-3 months worth of rent for a deposit that is returnable and any realtor fee.
As you'll have no credit history, if they don't just ignore you out right, then you might be asked to pay anything up to 3 months of rent in advance.
You'll have more luck with a private landlord than a complex/condo.
Credit check can cost anything from $20-60 usually and if you're asked to do one, you should be allowed to use the results of that on another rental application if the application is made within 5 days of getting the credit check done. The fee is not going to be refundable if you don't get the application accepted.
Usually find a minimum of a 12 month lease, especially in places of snow, where they don't want to find the place empty over winter. Can find shorter rentals but they tend to be much higher cost.
To the point above about lack of credit not being an issue, well it can if the market is busy. When we got our place, there were already 10 other couples interested and the place before we were interested in already had 17 applications for it and the landlord simply just won't bother with anyone that doesn't have any history because they can afford to cherry pick what they think is a safe bet.
If you're in Boston and use a realtor to find a place or the landlord uses one to find a tenant, you'll pay the fee and it can be anything from 1-3 months worth of rent. If you're way out in the burbs it might be a half months rent. In other states the landlord would pay if they use one.
Then after a background credit check, you'll have to put down on signing, first months and last months rent, along with anything from 1-3 months worth of rent for a deposit that is returnable and any realtor fee.
As you'll have no credit history, if they don't just ignore you out right, then you might be asked to pay anything up to 3 months of rent in advance.
You'll have more luck with a private landlord than a complex/condo.
Credit check can cost anything from $20-60 usually and if you're asked to do one, you should be allowed to use the results of that on another rental application if the application is made within 5 days of getting the credit check done. The fee is not going to be refundable if you don't get the application accepted.
Usually find a minimum of a 12 month lease, especially in places of snow, where they don't want to find the place empty over winter. Can find shorter rentals but they tend to be much higher cost.
To the point above about lack of credit not being an issue, well it can if the market is busy. When we got our place, there were already 10 other couples interested and the place before we were interested in already had 17 applications for it and the landlord simply just won't bother with anyone that doesn't have any history because they can afford to cherry pick what they think is a safe bet.
In Houston you can get as little as a 3 month lease (though most leases are a minimum of 6) and there is no first-and-last-month needed (deposits range from nothing, if the complex is running a special, to one full month's rent). Rental application fees are around 25 dollars. I've never paid or been asked to pay a realtor fee for an apartment. Month-to-month contracts are not uncommon after the original lease term expires, though you run the risk of next month's contract not being renewed, or the rent going up. I usually ask an "apartment locator" service to give me a survey based on what I specify (square footage, number of bed/bath, etc.).
Oct 7th 2013, 7:42 pm
#7
BE Site Lead
Joined: Aug 2004
Location: MA, USA
Posts: 92,170
Re: Renting Property
Yup.
It's easy finding a 1 bedroom in a shared house, or maybe a apartment in a studenty area.
If you need more than 2 rooms and some of these rooms aren't really bedroom worthy and especially if you have pets and you can really struggle. Worst thing is, even after you put in the application, pay for the credit check and application fee you might just never hear anything back.
Around here, a few landlords will go monthly after the initial 12 month lease.
Monthly rental is doable on a tourist type place, but something on the cape which might be $3K a month on a 12 month lease would be $2K a week if you went monthly during summer holidays for instance.
It's easy finding a 1 bedroom in a shared house, or maybe a apartment in a studenty area.
If you need more than 2 rooms and some of these rooms aren't really bedroom worthy and especially if you have pets and you can really struggle. Worst thing is, even after you put in the application, pay for the credit check and application fee you might just never hear anything back.
Around here, a few landlords will go monthly after the initial 12 month lease.
Monthly rental is doable on a tourist type place, but something on the cape which might be $3K a month on a 12 month lease would be $2K a week if you went monthly during summer holidays for instance.
Oct 7th 2013, 7:59 pm
#8
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Oct 2003
Location: My Old KY Home!
Posts: 6,498
Re: Renting Property
Yup.
It's easy finding a 1 bedroom in a shared house, or maybe a apartment in a studenty area.
If you need more than 2 rooms and some of these rooms aren't really bedroom worthy and especially if you have pets and you can really struggle. Worst thing is, even after you put in the application, pay for the credit check and application fee you might just never hear anything back.
Around here, a few landlords will go monthly after the initial 12 month lease.
Monthly rental is doable on a tourist type place, but something on the cape which might be $3K a month on a 12 month lease would be $2K a week if you went monthly during summer holidays for instance.
It's easy finding a 1 bedroom in a shared house, or maybe a apartment in a studenty area.
If you need more than 2 rooms and some of these rooms aren't really bedroom worthy and especially if you have pets and you can really struggle. Worst thing is, even after you put in the application, pay for the credit check and application fee you might just never hear anything back.
Around here, a few landlords will go monthly after the initial 12 month lease.
Monthly rental is doable on a tourist type place, but something on the cape which might be $3K a month on a 12 month lease would be $2K a week if you went monthly during summer holidays for instance.
Oct 7th 2013, 8:29 pm
#9
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 583
Re: Renting Property
Hi,
We moved over in June and are renting in NJ. We used a realtor to find our place as we had quite specific requirements and a dog too!
In terms of paperwork, we bought over :
Previous 5 years mortgage statements
Previous year utility statements
Experian Credit Report
Letter from OH employer confirming salary, contract length etc..
We paid:
1 month rent up front
1.5 month rent as deposit
Equivalent 1 month rent as realtor's fee (the tenant pays this in NJ).
We found it very difficult to find a property that would accept our dog (although would have had no problem in Jersey City or Manhattan, but unfortunately there are no decent public schools in these areas).
We moved over in June and are renting in NJ. We used a realtor to find our place as we had quite specific requirements and a dog too!
In terms of paperwork, we bought over :
Previous 5 years mortgage statements
Previous year utility statements
Experian Credit Report
Letter from OH employer confirming salary, contract length etc..
We paid:
1 month rent up front
1.5 month rent as deposit
Equivalent 1 month rent as realtor's fee (the tenant pays this in NJ).
We found it very difficult to find a property that would accept our dog (although would have had no problem in Jersey City or Manhattan, but unfortunately there are no decent public schools in these areas).
Oct 7th 2013, 8:56 pm
#10
Under blue skies
Joined: Mar 2011
Location: East Anglia->New England
Posts: 3,624
Re: Renting Property
If you're in Boston and use a realtor to find a place or the landlord uses one to find a tenant, you'll pay the fee and it can be anything from 1-3 months worth of rent. If you're way out in the burbs it might be a half months rent. In other states the landlord would pay if they use one.
Then after a background credit check, you'll have to put down on signing, first months and last months rent, along with anything from 1-3 months worth of rent for a deposit that is returnable and any realtor fee.
As you'll have no credit history, if they don't just ignore you out right, then you might be asked to pay anything up to 3 months of rent in advance.
You'll have more luck with a private landlord than a complex/condo.
Credit check can cost anything from $20-60 usually and if you're asked to do one, you should be allowed to use the results of that on another rental application if the application is made within 5 days of getting the credit check done. The fee is not going to be refundable if you don't get the application accepted.
Usually find a minimum of a 12 month lease, especially in places of snow, where they don't want to find the place empty over winter. Can find shorter rentals but they tend to be much higher cost.
Then after a background credit check, you'll have to put down on signing, first months and last months rent, along with anything from 1-3 months worth of rent for a deposit that is returnable and any realtor fee.
As you'll have no credit history, if they don't just ignore you out right, then you might be asked to pay anything up to 3 months of rent in advance.
You'll have more luck with a private landlord than a complex/condo.
Credit check can cost anything from $20-60 usually and if you're asked to do one, you should be allowed to use the results of that on another rental application if the application is made within 5 days of getting the credit check done. The fee is not going to be refundable if you don't get the application accepted.
Usually find a minimum of a 12 month lease, especially in places of snow, where they don't want to find the place empty over winter. Can find shorter rentals but they tend to be much higher cost.
We had no pets or children, and could provide a good reference from our previous UK landlord. The LL's agency wanted 3 months' rent up front (though two months' were the deposit, which we got back, and the other month went to our last month there), colour copies of our British drivers licenses (not sure what they did with those), and I think they paid for the credit &/or police check.
We did dicker them down a bit on the rent--due to the fireplace not working & some other flaws not made clear in the initial advert for the place.
Last edited by WEBlue; Oct 7th 2013 at 8:58 pm.
Oct 7th 2013, 9:42 pm
#11
BE Site Lead
Joined: Aug 2004
Location: MA, USA
Posts: 92,170
Re: Renting Property
Our current place was found privately and there wasn't a fee, our last place we negotiated it down from a month to a half months fee that we paid.
Previous to that I negotiated the fee into a relocation package.
Friend of the missus just paid 1.5 months worth as a fee for a flat in downtown Boston, along with 3 months rent, something close to $15K in cash up front but her husbands new job was going to reimburse much of it in end of year bonus.
Never had this up in Maine either, first/last on signing, plus 1 months deposit returnable and any pet deposit not refundable we found to be the norm.
