Qualifying to rent as an early retiree with no external monthly income

[misshathaway]

I'm about to go back to central Florida to line up a rental for a year. Does anyone here have any experience qualifying for a lease without SS, and just paltry capital gains income? I live on savings and an annual rebalance that goes into my bank account. I don't plan on taking SS until full retirement age unless something about SS changes. I have good credit.

There is a thread on this on CityData where there are realtors insisting that showing a savings account balance, or investment account balance, or even paying the entire lease in advance does not work. I would not really want to pay the whole thing in advance anyway b/c then I'd have no leverage if something major went wrong in the rental and they would not fix it.

Landlord reasons are, in case of a default you could just pull the money out, whereas the landlord could garnish wages or SS. Paying the whole thing in advance does not cover damages.

There is also one potential renter posting who is having a hard time, so I don't think it's just realtors trying to drum up business for themselves. I don't see how it can be so hard to rent in a state full of retirees. If you have been successful, what did you bring to show them?

 

[Bamaman]

With a good FICO score and documentation showing you have the $ in the bank to pay the whole lease should be sufficient for any landlord. You've showed you have good character and the capacity to pay.

If that's not good enough, find another place to rent.

 

[Sarah S]

I am in Boston so maybe it is different but I rented from a large company ( multiple properties). There was no issue whatsoever with just showing assets. No need for advance payment or anything else.

 

[samclem]

It might be different in different markets. I would think a landlord would be pretty comfortable with tenant that had a good credit score, could demonstrate a pile of assets and a record of living from them, and maybe a deposit big enough to cover some damages and enough time to get the get the person kicked out of the unit if they failed to pay. And if he paid on time for a year with me and kept the place nice, I'd probably accept a reduced deposit. A good tenant is worth a lot to a landlord.

 

[Aerides]

Probably depends on if you are going to be dealing with a landlord, or a large rental company. IE, you are renting from one of the types of folks here with multiple rental properties, vs. a large apartment complex. The latter probably has less flexibility in their requirements.

A landlord who would turn down a full down-payment because of potential damages sounds...odd.

 

[calmloki]

What samclem and Aerides said. As a private landlord I have much discretion - within the bounds of discrimination laws. Show me a good credit score and a bunch of assets and some decent references and I am pretty welcoming. Someone hired to manage has rules laid down to follow and only stands to lose by bending those rules.