Insurent will guarantee your lease for 65 percent to 90 percent of a month's gross rent if you have U.S. credit.

Stocksy

As most renters know (or are shocked to learn), finding an apartment that’s affordable, livable, and available is only the first step in the grueling process of landing a New York City rental. Once you’ve found a place worth renting, you must convince a landlord that you are rent-worthy.

Because you won't qualify for that dream apartment if:

  • Your perfectly respectable annual salary does not equal at least 40-50 times the monthly rent (so at least $120,000 a year for a $3,000 one-bedroom place).
  • You’re a foreign employee relocating to the U.S. with no U.S. credit history.
  • You are an international student or a U.S. student with no income and no U.S. credit history.
  • You’re self-employed (because to a landlord your income is too unpredictable).
  • You have a lot of money, but no job (think investor, retiree, trust-fund baby, newly single, etc.).
  • You are a full-time student or a retiree and do not work.

Why get pre-approved with a guarantor?

Remember, time is not on your side as an apartment hunter unless you plan ahead. For example, international and U.S. students who know they will be living off campus need to do their homework. If that is you, don't expect to roll back to NYC in August and expect to get an apartment.
 
Plus, the NYC rental market is very competitive right now. For most available apartments, there are multiple renters submitting applications.
 
So what do you do? Your best bets are to:
  • Start your apartment search as early as you can, even if it is just to get a sense of what you can afford
  • Get pre-approved by a professional guarantor 

Why get pre-approved? It's your best strategy for finding an apartment. In fact, students, empty nesters without income, and international students could very well be wasting time looking at apartments without a guarantor lined up. You'll have a better sense of what you can afford and you won't waste time looking at—and falling in love with—apartments that you won't qualify for.

 
And here's some more advice: Don't be surprised that you need a guarantor if you don't work but have money in the bank—even if it is a nice, big number, it still likely won't help you. Landlords want to see steady income coming in, even if you have $1 million sitting in your account. (The thinking is it can be very tempting to blow an amount like that very quickly. So save yourself the time and stress and get pre-approved.)
 

How the rules for renting have changed

In the past, some landlords would accept a large, up-front security deposit or prepaid rent for the entire lease to overlook any issues (that's no longer allowed because of changes to the rent laws). Many will accept a personal guarantor—but the guarantor usually has to live in the tri-state area, be willing to wade through cumbersome paperwork, and earn 75 to 85 times the monthly rent (that works out to about $240,000 for that $3,000 one bedroom).

Or, you can simply go with a professional guarantor like Insurent, which works with over 9,000 NYC buildings, representing over 825,000 rental units (and more in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Virginia, Illinois, Washington D.C., California, and Florida)—will guarantee your lease for 65 to 85 percent of a month's rent if you have U.S. credit and around a month's rent if you are foreign with no U.S. credit.

Scenarios where Insurent can help get you that apartment:

  • You have good (not necessarily perfect) credit and earn at least 27.5 times the monthly rent (that’s $82,500 per year—not $120,000—for that $3,000 one-bedroom).
  • You earn less than 27.5 times rent or you’re a student, and you have parents who live outside of tri-state area or even overseas. (Insurent’s requirements for parents are much less stringent than most NYC landlords, and they accept overseas parents as signatories with 50 times the monthly rent in annual income or 80 times the monthly rent in the bank.)
  • You have a lot of liquid assets (in the bank or stock market) at a minimum of 50 times the monthly rent but no job.
  • You’re moving here from another country to start a job, but you don’t have U.S. credit history.
  • You’re self-employed.
  • You have roommates and none of your parents make 80 times the monthly rent or do not wish to guarantee the full lease.
  • Your parents don't want to guarantee roommates whom they may or may not know or they don't want to divulge all of the financial information required to be a guarantor.
  • At this stage of your life, hitting up mom and dad as guarantors feels wrong. Plus you don’t want them to know how much you’re spending on an apartment.

Click here to view the buildings and landlords that accept the Insurent Program.

Insurent Lease Guaranty is the first and leading institutional guarantor of residential leases in New York. To qualify and get the apartment you want, visit www.insurent.com or call 646-843-1712.

Also from Insurent:

Looking to upgrade to a nicer NYC rental? A guarantor can help

Why do New Yorkers love Insurent? Let us count the ways

Top 10 reasons to call Insurent when your landlord wants a guarantor

Found your dream rental but need a guarantor?

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guarantors landlords renters renting retiree roommates security deposit