first time renters (apartments, tenants, credit card, house)

[katie07]

I am just starting my first apartment search and am worried about having no rental history or credit. Some background first, I am 21 years old and a university student, 3 of my roommates and I are looking at moving off campus next after living in on-campus apartments for the past 3 years. We are all 20-21 years old. All of us have lived on campus for the past 3 years and therefore do not have any rental history/references. Additionally only one of us has a credit card, and she has good credit, but only 1 or the 4 potential tenants having credit I am worried this will not go over well with landlords.

We are all responsible, don't drink, don't do drugs, don't smoke etc. we are all nursing or bio majors and spend most of our time studying. We do not live in a college town so the market here is not really open to first time renters.

We are most interested in living in a community but seems most of these complexes require good rental history and credit, its not that we have bad history we just don"t have any!

Any ideas or suggestions to get around this?

Financially we can afford the townhouses we are looking at, with financial aid and parents paying for some of ours college expenses. We just dont know how many community's/landlords are going to let us live there, given the college student stigma and no history/credit!

Any help? We have to start somewhere to gain rental history...

Thanks!

[ZenMaster2008]

Would a parent be willing to co-sign? That's what I had to do for my first place in college.

You can also show pay stubs, bank statements etc... to prove you have the money.

[DrEarth]

It's not just the college stigma, it is also includes all younger people, especially having four young people in one place, even if you don't drink.

Your best bet is to find the "young" area of town, since there is no college section, or consider only two people for an apartment.

[bentlebee]

I had students come to my property and stating their parents would co-sign, which to me is perfectly fine....I ended up renting to a family since I never heard back from them and think they might have found something closer to their University.

[Bluecielos]

DrEarth's idea of having 2 people try to find a place instead of 4 is a good idea and also getting a co-signer!

If I personally had 4 college students who wanted to rent one of my places, but I also had a qualified couple, I would choose the couple. Landlords might see 4 college kids = trouble!