1. Sympathies on the divorce.
That's a life-wrecker that takes quite some time to get through and recover from.
2. Honestly? My advise would be to chuck it altogether. All a FICO score shows is that you've paid for the privilege of using your own money. (Full Disclosure: I have to have a credit card for work; I have no idea what my score is at current, and really don't care).
I find it difficult to believe that you cannot get an apartment without one. There are
several guides for
doing so.
I wouldn't recommend getting a cosigner (and I would
never recommend cosigning yourself). I would, however, recommend being willing to take short-term leases, being willing to pay more up front, have references (including former landlords), and starting by addressing the credit issue and demonstrating strong income, low debt, strong cash-flow, etc.
As part of your post-divorce New Life, remake yourself financially. Get Debt Free, man. Build up a big fat emergency fund.
Then you don't care if your FICO score is zero.
Your bolded will be highly dependent upon the rental environment. If renting from private individuals, in low demand or marginal areas, or when renting marginal accommodations, there may be more leeway; but that's far from given.
But many rental situations today now involve corporate owned units, or units managed by a management company. In these instances rentals are treated like a corporate retail experience, no different than any other; similar to a car loan or mortgage, you either meet the criteria or you don't. It's all very cold and impersonal. Also, even private individual landlord's have very easy access to online credit reporting & background checks with no cost to them; the prospective renter pays the fee. And landlords tend to be a nervous bunch.
So I disagree with your premise that reasonably good credit is not necessary to rent, and believe you're pointing-out the exceptions rather than the rule. The only qualifier I may add, is that my experience is in a large urban environment, so it may be possible some facets could be different in a rural environment - I'm willing to say that's beyond my realm of experience.
I also would point-out that 2 of your 3 links are addressing "no credit" specifically and exclusively, and the third addresses both "no credit" and "bad" credit. There's a huge difference between "no credit" and "bad credit", as "no credit" isn't that much of a problem, and having "no credit" (that is, "no negatives on your history"), may actually be thought of as "good credit" for many purposes, or perhaps more accurately thought of as "good enough".
It is "bad credit" that is the concern and impediment for most renters, and seems to be the subject here, not the lack of "good credit". I don't care how good your payment history may be otherwise, go into foreclosure and you've just shut-off your access to credit and renting in a large amount of instances.
But the very fact you supplied 3 guides to address a problem you claim does not exist, would seem to demonstrate that yes, a problem does indeed exist. Otherwise, why produce the guides?
:shrug: plenty of people do and have lived in fine apartments and rented houses without great credit scores, and I linked several guides on how to do so.
Full Disclosure - I don't know what my credit score is. However:
1. I have never had a car loan.
2. I have never had a mortgage.
3. I once borrowed $500 for "credit building" because I was young and stupid, and a friend told me it was a good idea. That was in 2007, so I doubt it impacts now.
4. I have one work credit card that is tied to my name that gets used... maybe once (for two purchases) every two months. I have a private credit card that I just don't use.
So I'm pretty sure my credit score isn't exactly stratospheric, given that mostly it's a score for how often you use debt. I have rented domestically and internationally, apartments and houses, for about 8 years now, and it has never been an issue.
You may not be stratospheric, but you are very likely "adequate", and would in fact most likely be considered to have "good" credit IMO. Congratulations for being fiscally sound. As I iterated above, the show-stopper is "bad" credit; meaning late payments, missing payments, default, or judgement. Avoid those, and you're essentially "good" for most purposes. Which would seem to be your case.
