State Specific Question About: TENNESSEE (TN)

I’ve never used the percentage of credit in my qualification process. I’ve also never had a payment problem with someone with a high credit score.

To answer your question I have a short story. Near to one of my apartment complex 's is a church. On those applications for renters from that church I ask, "In the case of an emergency, like your short of funds to pay rent, What would you do to come up with the full rent"? Their number 1 answer is Prey!

If I were to ask people who abuse their credit limits the same questions, "How to come up with rent in the case of an emergency--they'd charge it!

If I'm going to get off into the weeds on credit used, I'm going to use something similar to a DTI ratio that they use in loan underwriting. This would be looking at his total monthly obligations, including the potential rent, as a percentage of his total income.

Percentage of credit used alone tells you nothing. If someone has a $1,000 credit limit on their credit card and owes $690 that is 69% used. If someone has multiple credit cards with a total limit across all cards of $500,000 and owes $345,000 across those cards, that is also 69% used. The two are very different.

All that being said, if I had an applicant with a credit score of 792, I would be doing everything I could to move forward with them. You don't get that credit score if you have a history of not paying your bills on time.

Doesn't sound like the tenant will be with you for long either way. High CS, house in escrow. Probably wants to rent while looking for another house or site to build.

I agree with the others that the % used doesn't matter as much.

I froze my credit and for some reason I get spam from the actual credit bureaus. But I got one that said my CS dropped. Hmm, I wonder why?

So I went to their site, logged in and found out that they checked the credit while I still had money on my personal credit card. It dropped my score. Then the next month I got an email saying congrats that my score went up.

We pay the cards off monthly. They checked it once before we paid it and another time after we paid it.

The score moves around yes but it doesn’t bounce from good to bad. If someone with a 740 drops to 700 temporarily they are still qualified. Mine routinely drops 20 points because like Ken said my balances can change by 30K on a given month.

As ZERO and JS said. I'd take that 792 score if all else is the truth. He may not stay as long as you hoped. With housing being tough to find currently, he might be there awhile. Any time someone renting from us but says they will be buying a house in the next year or two, they've been there from 4 years up to 9 years before they bought a house. And that was when it was easier to find a house than now.

The credit utilization rate is a component of the FICO credit score. You want to keep credit utilization as low as possible. (Although I guess you're own credit score is irrelevant for you no debt buyers)

Thanks Oreo!