The Money Mustache Community
Around the Internet => Antimustachian Wall of Shame and Comedy => Topic started by: Unionville on May 08, 2015, 06:00:48 PM
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I just saw this post on craiglist! OMG!
"Need A Guarantor/Co-signer (berkeley)
Hi. I am desperately seeking someone that is able and willing to cosign for me on an apartment lease. I have good credit and can afford my rent; however, all my friends and family members either don't make enough or have bad credit. I am a 20 yr old college student attending UC Berkeley and I am extremely responsible. I promise you wont have to worry about a thing. My rent total is about $2900 but will be split among three people making my portion, and the portion you would be cosigning for, about $900. Again, I can definitely afford this amount. In order to qualify as my cosigner you must make at least $7200 a month and have decent credit. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me. I will also be able to compensate you for your time and help."
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LOL!!!!
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"It's a trap!"
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Good luck with that.
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Hell, I'd co-sign for him. Give me $34,800 today, and I'll pay you back $2,900 every month until the lease is up and you don't need a co-signer anymore. I wouldn't even charge...interest-free use of money is payment enough.
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Wow.....
Either you don't have the security deposit... thats a problem, or you don't have enough income... bigger problem, or your credit is shot.
Get a cheaper apartment..... that is the solution.
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First he cannot do math, $2900/3 is not $900, it is $966.67 and two, you would be cosigning for the whole $2900 because $2900 is 40% of $7200, and 30-40% is a common cap you can send on a rental (for many landlords). Even if he had the whole $34,800 I would not cosign, what happens when he or his friends damage the place? The cosigner is on the hook.
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Repost on SugarDaddy.com...or SugarMommy.com. Oh wait, this is Berkeley- just google SugarWhateverApplies.com and go from there.
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Either you don't have the security deposit... thats a problem, or you don't have enough income... bigger problem, or your credit is shot.
Not necessarily. The ad says that s/he is a college student. I live in a college town, and most apartment complexes won't rent to students without a cosigner. So this person could legitimately be responsible, have the money, etc., but be required to have a cosigner because of age & student status. If there's no family member who can do it, they're shit out of luck.
I'm not saying I'd cosign for some kid I didn't know (I doubt I'd cosign for a kid I did know, unless it was my kid), but this isn't necessarily a case of them being irresponsible.
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I live in a college town, and most apartment complexes won't rent to students without a cosigner. S
So go on craigslist, and sublease a room. No cosigner necessary. There are always ways around the system.
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Either you don't have the security deposit... thats a problem, or you don't have enough income... bigger problem, or your credit is shot.
Not necessarily. The ad says that s/he is a college student. I live in a college town, and most apartment complexes won't rent to students without a cosigner. So this person could legitimately be responsible, have the money, etc., but be required to have a cosigner because of age & student status. If there's no family member who can do it, they're shit out of luck.
I'm not saying I'd cosign for some kid I didn't know (I doubt I'd cosign for a kid I did know, unless it was my kid), but this isn't necessarily a case of them being irresponsible.
Assuming the student is over 18 and a legal adult who can sign a contract, the student status isn't the problem. If the student were independently wealthy with a passive income four times bigger than their monthly rent, they'd have no trouble getting approved. It's a question of income. If the student doesn't have enough income to qualify properly, such that they make enough to ensure rent is less than 30% of their monthly income, then a cosigner is vital. Anything else constitutes predatory lending.
Just because students "have the money" to pay the rent doesn't mean they have enough money to reliably pay the rent if something goes sour. A whole lot of students live hand-to-mouth, which is fine if you're living in a dorm and your expenses are mostly fixed. Outside the dorm, in the greater community, students have to meet the same standards as anyone else seeking a rental, and that means having an income substantially higher than what's usually associated with student housing.
Hopefully each of these renters has a separate lease or rental agreement, but most landlords have just one lease and require all of the tenants to sign it together. This is very much in the landlord's favor. Unless each tenant's liability is explicitly spelled out, tenants are jointly and severally responsible for the entire lease, as are their co-signers. This means that if the other two tenants bail out or refuse to pay rent, the co-signer for the single tenant could easily be liable for the entire amount of the lease.
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Yeah, well, you can put anything on Craigslist, but that doesn't mean it'll sell.
First he cannot do math, $2900/3 is not $900, it is $966.67
Maybe, maybe not. You're assuming equal rent among the three. When I was a senior in college five of us rented a five bedroom house. The house had one BIG master bedroom with a walk-in closet and private bath ... and then four approximately equal smaller bedrooms that shared a hall bath. One girl wanted the big master bedroom and was willing to pay more; the rest of us wanted to pay less rent. We all agreed and were all happy. I don't think that's particularly uncommon.
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Yeah, well, you can put anything on Craigslist, but that doesn't mean you'll get a positive response. And pretty muchno 20-year old has good credit; they mostly have no credit.
First he cannot do math, $2900/3 is not $900, it is $966.67
Maybe, maybe not. You're assuming equal rent among the three. When I was a senior in college five of us rented a five bedroom house. The house had one BIG master bedroom with a walk-in closet and private bath ... and then four approximately equal smaller bedrooms that shared a hall bath. One girl wanted the big master bedroom and was willing to pay more; the rest of us wanted to pay less rent. We all agreed and were all happy. I don't think that's particularly uncommon.