Hello I am 17 years old my parents have bad credit to the point they can't own apartment. How can i get an apt

Question

I am 17 years old..could i get apartment at 17. I need to be on my own . I hate the place we live now because it's so ghetto. My family live with my grandfather in a two bedroom house plus my sister children. I really want to move back to bloomington il and live on my own..is that possible?

Answer 1

You won't be able to get the apartment until you are eighteen, and even then it will still be hard. You don't have credit yet, so you probably will need a cosigner, and your parents may not qualify because of their bad credit. My sister is 23 and she needed someone to cosign for her.

Answer 2

Money talks here and so does credit. So you need to get the credit in place. You could take one of your parents bills and be sure to pay it early or ontime for a year. That starts a credit line that you can demonstrate. Get a checking account when you can and keep track of the cancelled checks so that you can show them when you need to do so. Paying ontime or early is so important! You can craft a better life by being smarter! Once the credit is in place and you have your first apartment just remember you don't spend until you have the money in the bank account! Balance your account every month and be strict with yourself. Never save in an account that has a fee. Shop for a bank who understands what saving is about and there are NO fees required for a SAVINGS account! MAKE THEM UNDERSTAND. Get a library card (did you know you can "check out movies" from the library thereby saving a Blockbuster fee! or cable TV and study: Read Susy Ormond for money advice and anything Rich Dad, Poor Dad! by Robert Kyosaki. First apartment should either be a big complex they charge less but, will do a credit check! or a small landlord who only owns one or two apartments-they may not even check credit. Better to be prepared for it though. If you go through a Realtor it may cost you First, Last and security plus up to $100 for a credit check. Hope this helps. Good Luck-God Bless.

Answer 3

I know bloomington! Im from Rockford and just moved out on my own a few years ago. You have to be 18 to sign a lease unless you want to go to court and all of that. A friend of mine who had no credit and moved out at 18 did this: save your money from now until you turn 18, find an apartment that is owned by a landlord and try to sign the lease on your own, you may need a good job to show responsibility etc etc, if the landlord turns you down offer to pay a few months rent up front (like i said save your money) so he knows that at least for a few months he can trust youre paid up. Why do you want to move to bloomington? if you want to go to school there, you should try for some financial aid to live in the dorms there... some of them really arent bad and you could meet some great roomates! if you arent going to school there maybe consider some other areas where the cost of living is cheaper.

Answer 4

You won't get an apartment until you are at least 18 years of age, since you are still not a legal adult. Any lease agreement signed by a minor is not enforceable, and rare is the landlord who will agree to rent facilities to someone who cannot be held legally liable for rents and damages.

I can only suggest waiting until you are old enough to legally strike out on your own. You may have difficulty at age 18 as well, since you won't have any credit file established which a landlord can check. You may need to find accommodations with someone 'to share' until you have established credit.

Answer 5

It is possible. Think individually. What can you do to help yourself? What kind of job can you get? What kind of education can you get to help you get a better job? Learn all that you can about personal finance. Do not believe that you learned all you need in school. Go and get a book about personal finance and learn about budgets and saving and investing.

Next up, you have already seen what kind of damage that credit can bring. Learn from it. Use credit sparingly. That is the cause of a lot of finance problems. People go into debt for some of the dumbest reasons. A TV is not a good idea to go into debt. A vacation is not a good idea to go into debt. New furniture is not a good reason to go into debt.

Basically, if you are not making money off what you are buying then debt is pretty much a bad idea. A house or an education would be good examples of using debt properly. However, you still have to be careful. Lots of people have learned that mortgages can be tough and I know plenty of people who borrowed too much money for school and now their student loans are crippling them.

In the end, you just need to learn more about personal finance. Go and get "Personal Finance for Dummies". Don't let the name throw you off. It is a pretty good starting point. Gets you the basics in a pretty easy format. From there, expand into other books. Don't forget the internet. Lots of resources out there.

Here is a site that I use. It has thousands of articles covering just about every aspect you personal finance you can imagine.

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/Archive.html

Go thru there and find articles that interest you and read them.

Answer 6

It may not yet be. But you should have no trouble when you are 18. Instead, try betting on your future and going to college or enter the military.

Keep a hold of the credit card situation so you do not end up like your parents.

College or the military (with additional training) will help you out in the future and lead to financial security.

Remember, your parent's mess is not your own. Let your grandfather help them out and you look out for yourself.

Answer 7

You need a job and have to establish your own credit rating. You may be able to get your own place if you have enough money for the first and last month rent deposit, but at 17 if you don't have a decent job it may be hard to find a landlord willing to rent you a place.

Answer 8

Finish school and find a job. You are very close to choosing your own path. Dont do it before you are ready though. Find a college in Bloomington and start preparing to pick a direction in life that you will follow. You will be on your own before you know it.

Answer 9

You can't sign a contract until you're 18, so no apartment. Sorry. Maybe you could rent a room from someone? Like a family that needs extra money or something.

Answer 10

yes...there is a thing called legal emancipation and allows you to do things on your own...your parents have to help here and you did not say what was going on in your relationship....be careful though and I do not mean to be mean but I know too many clients who have used the kids id to get phones and places to live in the kids id and then did not pay the bills...this gives the kid a bad credit rating before they are even old enough to have any credit rating...but if that is done there is a way to undo it