Will an apartment complex let me rent if the rent is $450 and I have ok credit?

Question

I am 19 and will be by myself. I have a part-time job and only make around $200 (sometimes less or more) but I go to school fulltime. I have never had any rental history and I have had the same job for two years.

Answer 1

I've always been told that your rent should be 1/4 of your monthly income... so if you are paying $450 a month for rent, you should be making $400 - 450 gross a week.

Does this rent include utilities, etc? If not, they may not if you are making $200/week because you have to pay power, water, any phone expenses, and many apartments require you to buy renters insurance.
And then there is food, clothing, car expenses, etc.

Answer 2

Even if your credit is great, your income is too low.

A rule of thumb many landlords use is that your monthly gross income must be at least 3X your rent and utilities. Let's say your utilities are $100/mo. So you need to make ($550 x 3 =) $1650 a month to live there. And even if we take out the utilities part, you would still need to make ($450 x 3 =) $1350 a month.

Do you make that much? If you meant $200/week, that's only $800/month, meaning that your rent can't be more than $800/3= $267.

Answer 3

With good credit and making $200 a week, you should be able to make a $450 rent payment. You will probably have to pay first and last months rent plus a security deposit.

Answer 4

At $200 a week, the rent is over 50% of your income. That's too high. (And if it's $200 every 2 weeks, you don't make enough to even pay the rent, let alone utilities and food.)

Sorry, but this is out of your price range.

Answer 5

I dont know, Is the 200 a week or every other week? is there anything else you have to pay like, trash or water, most you dont but some you do... have you looked into lowincome apts? the rent is based on what you make..