Apartment hunting with student loans

[butterfingers2010]

I'm moving to a big city in the fall, where I will be attending graduate school. I will be living almost exclusively off of student loans and am nervous about qualifying to rent an apartment. I took out a little less in loans than I could have, due to the fact that I have money in savings and I'm also fairly frugal, not to mention that I do not want to pay more back in interest someday than is necesary. The apartments I'm interested in are in the $600 a month range, give or take. By my calculations and the "you have to have three times the amount of rent in income" rule that most landlords go by, I have about $500 to spend on an apartment per month. It's just me and I don't plan on getting a roommate, as I like quiet and privacy and have had a traumatizing experience in the past living with a roommate I didn't know beforehand. I do not have any concerns about my ability to pay the rent, as I currently spend about half of my take-home pay on rent and am still able to pay all my other bills (like I said, I'm pretty frugal). This is not by choice-I don't make much money and it was the cheapest apartment I could find, but I do fine. I have excellent credit and a solid rental history, so I'm hoping those factors will help me. I also plan on ditching my car in favor of public transportation, and will be receiving a free public transport pass from my school. This should cut down on my expenses by a couple hundred dollars per month.

Now, how hard and fast is this "minimum income" rule? Are landlords more forgiving if they know you are a student? My parents are both willing to co-sign for me, if requested (they both also have great credit as well as a solid income). As mentioned, I also have some money in the bank and my parents have said they will help me out financially if I'm in a tight spot. I will probably also get a part-time job, although I have no way of knowing how much income that will be, since I plan to wait until after I move to start looking.

Does anyone have some insight? I have already looked into student housing, which is sadly more expensive than off-campus housing. Please don't say "get a roommate" because this is simply not an option for me. I don't know anyone in the city looking for a roommate and, due to past experiences, refuse to live with people I don't know.

[Sigaba]

Have you looked into off-campus apartments that typically lease/rent to students? Managers of such properties may have experience working with potential renters in your situation.

BTW, welcome back.

Edited June 28, 2012 by Sigaba

[ktel]

In addition, since you are probably getting all your loan money in one lump sum, you should be able to get certified cheques or something like that to your landlord. As long as they get paid, they shouldn't care.

[mirandaw]

Landlords in college towns expect you to claim your student loan money as "income."

[butterfingers2010]

Thanks for the ideas! I have actually run across a few apartment complexes that specifically state they work with students, so maybe I'll focus on those when I got apartment hunting. Offering to pay in advance would help, but my loans will be disbursed three times over the course of the school year (they are disbursed with the start of each quarter). At any rate I hope that if I look around enough I will find someone flexible to work with. My current landlord must be, I don't know how else I got this apartment on my income. ; )

Thanks Sigaba : )

[TakeruK]

I've found that having my parents cosign on the lease made a big difference, especially for my first lease ever. I will be facing a similar problem moving to Pasadena (I'm from Canada) as we have no credit history in the US, my wife can't work until we get her Employment Authorization Document, and we won't have a US bank account right away (but we are considering hopping across the border shortly to get an account before we start looking for apartments). We called ahead to some landlords and they said a certified bank cheque is good for the initial deposit and I guess I will hope my stipend info is good enough (my income would only be ~2x the

average rent though).

We do have some savings so maybe if we have the first few months rent in certified cheques, it might help the situation. Thanks for bringing up this question as I haven't heard of the "3 times income" rule before and the answers in this thread were helpful to our situation too!

[imonedaful]

Most apartments by college campuses do work with students. You will have no problem with finding a place if you have a parent to cosign. When I graduated from college, I needed an apartment to live in while I found a job. I currently had zero income coming in, however I knew I was able to pay. My sister cosigned for the apartment and it was no issue.

[butterfingers2010]

TakeruK- Yes it is very typical in the U.S. for landlords to require you to make at least three times the amount of the monthly rent, or otherwise prove that you are able to pay every month. The actual law on this varies from state to state, so I would look up the laws for the state you are moving to. I know that in some states it is illegal to have a "minimum income requirement", however they can use the "three times the rent" rule (for example, a landlord cannot say "You must make $3,000 a month or more), but in other states this is legal. Here in WI it used to be that you could get around the "three times" rule if you could prove to your potential landlord that you have paid similiar rent in the past. Now unfortunately I think WI does not place as many restrictions on landlords. and they can pick any "minimum income" they like. Good luck with your apartment search, I"m sure something will work out for you!