Just a question to those landlords who require an income of 3 x rent and a paystub.
DH and I are soon retirering and will have nog job and 0 income. But when we sell our house and will rent for a year, we will have a million $ in cash or stocks. That should be able to compensate for lack of income, doesn't it? We have really high credit scores as well. Do you expect us to provide an overview of what we have in our bank accounts and stock funds?
I'm in a similar position as you. I get a kick out of these sorts of questions, because it almost assumes there's some sort of landlord school that anyone who rents out a home has to go to to learn concrete rules. There isn't.
Landlords are people, with their own prejudices and biases like everyone else. If you have no income and no rental references, it's either because you're a shady bum who's been evicted from your last 4 places and have no job or assets, or it's because you're a millionaire who just sold their home and looking to downsize.
So to that end it depends. Some people live by undending rules, others are far more willing to hear a good story and evaluate people and things on a case by case basis, and draw their own conclusions.
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Here's an example. When I was in my early 20s, I had close to 6 figures in savings leaving school from scholarships, a small business I ran, and various engineering coop jobs, whilst living at home. An enviable place for a new grad. I wanted to take time off to travel after uni, and wanted to get a rewards credit card. My (more politely worded) point to the bank was "hey, I don't have a job, but I'm doing better than like 98% of ppl in my shoes, I obviously know how to handle money, give me a CC". The first person responded "Impossible. You need 60k income for this card, period. You'd be surprised how many people can burn through money, so what happens when you burn through your assets, and rack up debt?" To which I responded "Well no, because I were that sort of person, I never would have amassed $80k, since that necessitates having had 10k, 20k, 50k at various earlier points, which I obviously didn't burn through". But logic, helpfulness, and thinking about things rationally was beyond this particular person vs being able to tick boxes. Anyways left there, went to a different bank, and eventually found someone who had more sense and was able to help me out. So even Mega Bank has some discretion.
Meanwhile, a friend with a negative networth, a leased BMW, and a low end job (30K millionaire) never had such issues. That's a far more normal story. People like normal stories since it doesn't require them to think and make hard judgments. If Mr. 30k defaults on rent its "well he had a job and could afford it, who could have seen this coming?! if you default on rent it's "well they didn't even have jobs! What did you expect?!".
A trick I've used in the past is to ask about a discount for paying 1 or 2 years up front. Not so much for the discount, but to put in their head that a $30k cash transaction would be nothing special, and you have lots of money.