There’s a first for everything, including renting your first apartment. But given all of the information and history that landlords typically like to see from tenant applicants, is it possible to get a lease if you’ve got no references or credit to back you up?

While a lack of credit, references, and rental history can certainly be a hurdle when it comes to landing a rental unit, it’s certainly not impossible to get a lease if you’re a first-time tenant. To help landlords see you as a responsible tenant and encourage them to approve your lease application, consider the following tips.

Have a Guarantor Sign on Your Lease

You’ve probably heard of guarantors when it comes to loans and mortgages, but what about leases? Guarantors can absolutely be used in this type of scenario to help you increase the odds of landing a lease.

Guarantors are those who are financially established and have decent credit and can be included on a lease to help provide the landlord with some reassurance that the rent will be paid. Whether it’s by yourself or the guarantor, all the landlord really cares about is getting paid, regardless of who writes the check.

If at any point throughout the lease you are unable or unwilling to pay rent, the guarantor would be obligated to step in and make the payments on your behalf. Having this signature on the lease may be just enough to get the landlord to agree to take you on as a tenant.

Take Out a Secured Credit Card

If you lack any credit, that could pose a problem for you, not only with getting a lease but even getting any sort of loan. If you’ve got no credit, lenders and landlords have nothing to base your financial history on. There will be nothing to back up your claims that you’re a responsible consumer who always makes debt payments on time.

In order to establish credit, consider taking out a secured credit card. These are much easier to get approved for compared to traditional unsecured credit cards. To use these cards, you would put up a certain amount of money as a deposit, which would essentially become your credit limit that you would not be able to spend over.

If you use the card responsibility and make regular payments on time and in full every billing cycle, these habits will be reported to the credit bureaus and will help to build up credit. Good credit is what you want to have, and being financially responsible is key. Once you’ve established good credit, your chances of landing a lease are much higher.

Agree to Direct Debit For Rent Payments

Rather than your landlord depending on you to provide rent checks on time every month, they may feel more secure if they were able to access rent payments through direct debit. While not necessary, it can help support your case and will show the landlord that you’re committed and serious about paying your rent in a timely fashion without forcing the landlord to hound you month after month.

Prove You Make a Healthy Income

Landlords want to make sure their tenants are financially capable of making rent. If your current income isn’t enough to sustain your rent charges, your application won’t have any leg to stand on. Ideally, you’ll have a decent job that pays well enough to allow you to comfortably make rent payments with plenty of money left over for other expenses.

Supply paystubs, an employment letter, or anything else that proves that you’ve got the income to support the rent. 

Submit a List of Personal References

If you’ve got people in your network who can vouch for your level of responsibility – especially when it comes to money – provide these references to the landlord. While landlords typically like to have references from previous landlords, you don’t have this luxury. But having a list of references from others who would describe you as a responsible individual can help landlords sway in your direction.

Consider Putting Up Three Months’ Worth of Rent in Advance

Landlords want to make sure they get paid for every month that passes, and supplying three months’ worth of rent upfront can help landlords see that you’re serious and have the financial means to make rent every month.

Get Some Help From a Real Estate Professional

Real estate agents are well versed in the realm of buying and selling homes, but they’re also heavily involved in the lease market as well. In order to get increase your odds of finding a unit that you can afford and suits your lifestyle, having a real estate agent in your corner can really help. They’ll also be able to negotiate with the landlord and plead your case in order to get the landlord to sign you on as a tenant.

The Bottom Line

People with good credit, a history of renting, and a good track record of making rent on time are in a really good position to get approved for a lease. But what if you don’t have these assets? Luckily, there are some things you can do make up for what you may lack as a result of being a first-time renter. And to really improve your odds, be sure to work with a real estate professional.

Sometimes, you just need to feel a little fancy! So, this week took me to Chop Shop, located at 2033 W. North Ave. The restaurant is located inside a 100-year old former auto body shop and is Chicago’s only sustainable butcher, deli, restaurant, and bar. It also houses a 6,000 square foot event space and concert venue. The menu rotates seasonally and is sourced from local farms and the in-house butcher. We were first seated on the rooftop patio, which is just adorable. There’s a number of upscale picnic tables with big umbrellas and string lights, making it feel warm and inviting. Unfortunately, it started to rain soon after we were seated, so we had to move inside. There were a number of specials on the menu. Select wine bottles were half-off, they served $1 oysters from 5-7 pm, and a $14 fried chicken dinner. Of course, we ordered a dozen oysters. They were absolutely delicious! I love fresh oysters and these certainly did not disappoint. We decided to start with the Signature Butcher’s Board: chef’s choice of house-made meats, local cheese, house pickles, and jams, served with grilled bread. This was delicious. There was an incredible blue cheese and I loved the chorizo as well. The menu was full of wonderful sounding entrees, which made it super difficult to decide. I finally decided on the Sriracha Chicken Burger: a half pound patty topped with pickled red onion, arugula, provolone, Sriracha aioli, on a brioche bun served with French fries. I wanted to eat a bit lighter, so I took the bun off and ordered the burger without the aioli. I also subbed a house salad with balsamic vinaigrette for the French fries. The chicken patty was very tasty! The Sriracha gave it a really nice bite and the pickled onions were perfectly tangy. My friend ordered the Butcher’s Burger: a brioche bun with a half pound of prime butcher’s blend, grilled balsamic red onion, bacon, aged cheddar, and a house sauce; served with fries. This was a very solid burger! The aged cheddar was sharp and delicious and I really loved the balsamic red onions.

Chop Shop’s kitchen is open Sundays from 11 am to 9 pm, closed on Tuesdays, open Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 11 am to 10 pm, and Fridays and Saturdays from 11 am to midnight. The deli/butcher is open Wednesday through Mondays from 11 am to 7 pm and closed on Tuesdays. For more information, check out their website.

RACHEL HOOVLER & DEAN’S TEAM CHICAGO

While you might not necessarily be doing any of the wheeling and dealing at the negotiating table when buying or selling a home, it’s still interesting to know how your real estate agent handles these talks in order to get their clients the best deals possible. In fact, one of the many reasons to hire a real estate professional is to have them negotiate for you.

This is an art form that’s not always easy and takes some amount of experience and training to nail down. That said, there are a few tricks that agents often employ to seal the deal, and here are a few of them.

1. Using Market Value As the Starting Point

Rather than using the asking price as the starting point, savvy buyer agents will calculate the true value of a property. Many sellers purposely price their homes over what the current market value of their property actually is. At the same time, many buyers attempt to lowball sellers, which often sends the deal nowhere, particularly in hot real estate markets.

In seller’s markets, buyers may want to offer slightly over the present market value in order to get the seller to accept, even though the offer price may be under the listing price. Offering just under the minimum amount that the seller is probably willing to accept is a better approach than lowballing in an effort to snag a deal. This will often coerce the seller into making a decision to accept an offer that’s only slightly under what their minimum is.

The idea is to engage the seller and get them to be a willing participant, and oftentimes lowballing too far will just kick buyers out of the game.

2.  Add an Escalation Clause to the Offer

If you’re on the buying end of a real estate transaction, you may want to consider including an escalation clause in the contract. An escalation clause is often used in scenarios that can possibly lead to multiple offers and is intended to eliminate most – if not all – of the competition. These clauses state that the buyer will pay a certain amount of money above the highest offer that the seller receives and usually includes a cap.

An escalation clause can help give you the best chances of winning a bidding war if you ever find yourself in one, which is pretty common in many sizzling markets across California. Basically, you promise to pay an ‘X’ amount more than the highest offer (but not over a certain amount). Sellers are often intrigued by these types of offers and are obviously more willing to keep buyers in the game as a result.

3. Making it a Win-Win Situation For Both Parties

Rather than going into a negotiation as a fight to see who can come out with the best deal, savvy agents create a situation that makes it look as if both parties are coming out on top. Buyers and sellers who go into a negotiation looking to squeeze every dollar out of each other can hurt each other’s position. Instead, striking a deal that leaves both sides satisfied is the best way to go.

4. Negotiating Over the Phone First

Many times it pays for agents to negotiate over the phone first to discuss pertinent points of the deal with the other agent before bringing the negotiations to the table. This can help start the process and get both parties on the same page before meeting in person and can help avoid much of the back and forth bantering. Too many counteroffers can confuse the situation. Instead, keeping things as simple as possible is the best way to go.

5. Giving Something to Get Something in Return

Sometimes it pays to offer up a little something in order to persuade the other party to sway in your favor. This is especially helpful for sellers and works by throwing in a little something to sweeten the deal and get buyers to meet them where there want to be. For instance, sellers can offer to pay down part of the closing costs, buy down the interest rate, provide an allowance for improvements, or throw in some furniture or other goodies as an incentive for buyers to keep their offer price higher.

6. Stay Somewhat Aloof

In a buyer’s market where there is plenty of supply to go around, buyers can use the strategy of being somewhat nonchalant about the whole thing, making sellers feel as though they’re possibly interested in other homes. With this strategy, it’s important for buyers not to let the sellers think that they’ve fallen for the home and that there are other properties out there that they may have their eye on.

7. Use Exclusions as Negotiable Items

It’s common for appliances to “automatically” be included in a real estate deal, but there’s no rule that says washers and dryers, for instance, should necessarily come with a home. Rather than including them in a deal, list items as exclusions and use them as negotiating tools instead in situations where a couple thousand dollars will mean the difference between a deal or a dud. 

The Bottom Line

Savvy real estate agents have a number of tricks up their sleeves when it comes to negotiating real estate deals. That’s exactly why it’s incredibly useful to have one in your corner. And the more deals your agent has on their track record, the more experience they have at the negotiating table, which will work in your favor when it’s time to strike a deal.

Bucktown and Wicker Park: Grab your furry best friend and get ready to celebrate National Dog Day with “For Paw’s Club”! The event is Sunday, August 26 from 1 to 4 pm at Bucktown Pub. 100% of the proceeds will benefit Live Like Roo, a volunteer run 501c3 organization committed to providing support and financial assistance to families whose pet face a cancer diagnosis. Tickets are $18 per person and include a ball pit sponsored by PetnPamper, pawdicures from 2-4 pm, drinks sponsored by Tito’s Homemade Vodka, beer from 4 Hands Brewing, samples of delicious dog treats from Side by Side, discounts from your favorite local pet shops, and more! Find more information and buy your tickets now here.

Lincoln Park: Mark your calendar so you can celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Delilah’s! The party is on Thursday, August 30 from 4 pm to midnight. Delilah’s opened in 1993 and has been open every single day since- that’s over 9000 straight days of business. Delilah’s has nightly DJ sets, a world class selection of beer and whiskey, film screenings, art exhibits, and amazing service. This fabulous celebration will feature a new whisky from Compass Box, music from some of their veteran DJs, and more! Find more information in the Facebook event.

Lakeview: Once again, the Music Box Theatre has the perfect way to keep you entertained! The Music Box 70MM Film Festival 2018 is here. From Friday, September 14 to Thursday, September 27, you can catch amazing films in 70MM format. The festival lineup includes classics like West Side Story, The Thing, Patton, Lawrence of Arabia, The Sound of Music, Silverado, and more. Festival passes are $75 for general admission, $60 for Music Box members. Individual film tickets are $14 for general admission, $12 for students and seniors, and $10 for Music Box members and kids. Find the full film lineup and showtimes here.

Andersonville: Learn about the Swedish heritage in Andersonville with a guided tour led by the Swedish American Museum. The tour is just $5 per person and includes admission to the museum, as well as a copy of the walking tour booklet. Members pay $1 for the booklet. Guided tours start and end at the museum. The next tour is Thursday, August 30 at 1 pm. Walking tours are held on the last Thursday of each month through September. For more information, click here.

Chicago Loop: It’s not too late to get your tickets for Dance For Life Chicago! This is an annual benefit dance concert that showcases the city’s diverse talent, dance traditions, and styles by bringing together talented, world-renowned professional dancers from Chicago. The dance community unites artistically to support those affected by critical health issues by generously donating their time, energy, and artistry to the cause. The show is this Saturday, August 18 at 7:30 pm. Featured dance companies include Giordano Dance Chicago, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, the Joffrey Ballet, and more. Ticket prices start at just $15 and are available for purchase here.

Portage Park: The summer may be winding down, but you can still catch a movie in the park before it’s over! On Thursday, August 23, pack up your friends, family, a blanket, and a picnic to watch E.T. in Portage Park. The movie will start at approximately 8 pm (or dusk). It is free to attend and E.T. is appropriate for all ages! For more information, click here.

RACHEL HOOVLER & DEAN’S TEAM CHICAGO

I’m always on the hunt for a new brunch spot! And this week, I found The Piggery. Located at 1625 W Irving Park Road, The Piggery is a large, sports-themed restaurant. They have a huge inside seating area, a large outdoor bar, and a rooftop deck! We came in for breakfast on a Sunday morning and were pleasantly surprised to find it mostly empty. We were seated right away and had a chance to look over the expansive breakfast menu. I was immediately tempted by the “Sweet Indulgences” section, with items like Nutella Banana Crepes and a Raspberry White Chocolate Waffle. After much debate, I finally decided on the Santa Fe Skillet: two eggs cooked any way, oven roasted potatoes with mozzarella, feta, and Romano cheese, grilled chicken breast, tomato, jalapeño, and spinach. The portion was huge- such a bargain for just $10! And it was absolutely delicious. They weren’t kidding with the three kinds of cheese- the potatoes were smothered and so tasty. I ordered my eggs over-easy; I always love the runny yolk mashed up with the other ingredients. One of my friends ordered the Steak Skillet, the same eggs and potatoes as mine, but topped with steak, red onion, and green peppers. He said it was very meaty (definitely a compliment) and that he’d definitely order it again. My other friend couldn’t decide between breakfast and lunch, so he ordered the Chicken Quesadillas and a short stack of pancakes. Again, I was impressed with the portion size for the price- both dishes were huge! I had a bite of the pancakes and immediately had food envy; they were so good. I will definitely be back!

The Piggery is open Mondays through Fridays from 11 am to 2 am, Saturdays from 8 am to 2 am, and Sundays from 8 am to 11 pm. Breakfast is served Saturdays and Sundays from 8 am to 2 pm. Bottomless mimosas are available from 11 am to 3 pm with the purchase of a breakfast entree for $15. Find more information here.

RACHEL HOOVLER & DEAN’S TEAM CHICAGO