Recent college grad here, searching for apartments in NYC with my perspective roommate. What forms do I need to provide to the landlord when applying? I have a copy of my offer letter and a letter of recommendation from the landlord I used when I lived off campus senior year of college.
Roommate and I have solid combined income (Exceeds the 40x rule for the price range we're targeting), but no credit history. Will I need to provide a 1040/W2, because my income shown there would be my income from student jobs? (I do have an offer letter I can show them)
Your offer letter can count as a form of income. A bit surprised on your lack of credit history, you didn’t use a credit card in college? If not, open one now (do your research on which credit card is best). I liked Chase Freedom in college. That should start your credit history.
No credit history, I used a debit card throughout college. Probably a mistake
How are you a certified user if this is your first full time gig? I thought intern positions were not eligible to be certified???
I just got certified a few weeks ago. I really don't know what being a 'certified user' entails. If I was certified by mistake then maybe a mod can take my status away.
My understanding is that you have to be in your position, FT - no interns, for at least 1 year before you are Certified. At least that's what the rules state, whether they stick to them or not is another question.
- offer letter
- printed bank statement
- copies of drivers licenses
- copies of last 2 years W2 (even if just an intern, or a min wage job)
- credit report (they will almost always pull it themselves, but I print one anyway so they know the number is good)
- be aware you'll need cashier's checks right away once you sign a place, so have all the cash ready upfront and in one account (first month + security deposit (1mo) + broker fee if needed)
Also really depends what you mean on no credit history... do you have no score at all or just a low score? if it's no score, or much below 680-700, you will need to find a guarantor.... absolutely no one in NYC will take a renter without a credit score. Hopefully one of your parents makes 80x if this is the situation. If not I'd recommend digging around for a long-ish term sublet and getting a credit score in the meantime
How do you get your old W2 forms?
Edit: for anyone who has the same question in the future, I actually figured out that you can access all past W2 and 1040 forms from the IRS website
Reach out to your past employer
Always keep your old ones in the future, but yeah you need to email your old HR if you didn't
Just went through the NYC apartment search for the 3rd time. Assuming you are a US citizen with family in the US. Since you have no credit, you’ll either (a) need a guarantor who makes 80x the rent who must provide proof of income through pay stubs, bank account statements, and credit over 700+. Or (b) use a third party guarantor such as The Guarantors or Rhino, most places will accept this and they are pretty user friendly and cheap.
An important note is that a guarantor must be able to cover all roommates and total rent, you can’t just have one guarantor cover your half of the rent (ex. 2bdrm $4500/mo, guarantor needs to make at least $360K even tho you are only paying $2250/mo). You are allowed to combine multiple to hit this figure.
Also sign up for an entry level credit card to start building credit. Chase Freedom Flex/Unlimited is a solid. Built Mastercard is also great bc it reimburses you any fees if used for rent payments plus you get points.
Woah. I've heard a lot of landlords are hard asses about using credit cards to pay rent (either a high fee, or flat out don't accept it). This is a godsend, looks like it covers both bases. Any downsides to the Blit?
If your landlord doesn’t accept credit card then Built will send a check for free directly to them and you still get the points and credit. Mine charges a 3.5% fee so this already has saved me a ton. I also like that they have transfer partners for hotels and flights that overlap with Chase/Amex so you can combine.
Downside id say is that you have to make 5 transactions a month (so paying ur rent isn’t enough) but I’d imagine that for a lot of recent grads, rent payments would take up a large part of the available credit. I usually just use it for Duane Reed and small stuff to hit the 5. Also there’s no sign up bonus, but for a no annual fee card, this has been a game changer.
Def do ur own research tho on their site, youtube reviews etc.
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