Not everyone has a rental history. This may be the first time you are living away from home, either for study or work. You may have switched jobs and moved into a new city or town. You may have immigrated from another country and hence have no rental history, yet you need to rent.
In all such situations, you will be in an unfavourable situation. Most landlords and even real estate agents will only want to deal with tenants who have a rental history. Fortunately, there is a simple solution to the problem.
- Establish your reasons to rent and appear to be a desirable tenant. Perhaps you have moved - your place of work or university could be closer to the neighbourhood where you are trying to rent and it could be any other plausible reason which must not be suspicious or unbelievable.
- The second requisite is also rather simple, unless you fail to meet the expected standards. To be a desirable tenant, you should have a reasonable income, ideally, you should not have too many liabilities. You should have proven employment or proof of your income, you should be able to furnish all details asked for by the landlord to prove your identity and your immediate whereabouts, you should not have any legal history and you should appear to be a responsible, sociable and likeable person. Discretion will always exist and landlords or real estate agents will always use it, not necessarily to discriminate but certainly when you don’t have any rental history.
- Use references of your employer, faculty or colleagues and friends. Offer to make a lump sum advance or pay several months’ worth of rent at once. Proactively propose to set up a direct debit and furnish your credit history if you have one. Use as much ammunition as you have working in your favour when you don’t have a rental history. The basic objective is very simple. You should have the landlord believe that you can afford the rent, you will pay the rent on time and that you wouldn’t do anything in the property that will be deemed unacceptable.
