24 Feb How to get around credit checks and income verification

I’m here to get into why these two things could be a deterrent for some people and how to best get around it. First, I should clarify there’s no silver bullet. If you really want to start your own Passive Airbnb business then you must do the work. Success is not complicated, it just takes consistent work. I’ve been preaching that for the last 3 years now.

Bad or Low Credit Score

Hey, this happens. Some of us are new to the game of “building” a credit score. You might only have a debit card. And “credit score” is like a foreign concept to you. First, I’d recommend you read up on how to build up your credit.

Most landlords are looking for people with a credit score of 680 or above. And sometimes, a higher credit score gets you better rates. But building your personal credit score can take years so is there another way around this?
Why you ask? I might just have the answer for you. Guess what? You can start an LLC and sign your lease under your newly minted LLC. I wrote a blog post about it 3 years ago. I’m going to link it below. You can thank me later. 🙂

[Read more: How to Incorporate An LLC For Your Airbnb Business In 5 Minutes or Less]

How to get around income verification

I got this email recently. And the same question would come sporadically so I decided to answer it once and for all!

Well, how do you start a Passive Airbnb business when you don’t have any income? A landlord needs to see if you have to means to pay for rent – or aka income verification. You could offer a higher security deposit to compensate for the lack of income, but that’s not really the best solution because you’re giving up valuable capital that could be better utilized in starting the business. I’m going to link how much it generally takes to spin up a unit below.

[Read more: How much will this Airbnb Business cost me to start?]

There’s another way? Yes, and why you ask? If I told you that you could just transfer money between your own accounts to show net-new deposits is the easiest solution, would you have believed me? If you don’t have two banking accounts (which I highly recommend you to open up a business account because it’s much easier to track your expenses when tax season rolls around) then you can grab a friend and just Venmo/Cashapp/Paypal each other back and forth a few times.

Wait, seriously? This is how you get around income verification?

Yea, I know… it’s stupid, but it works. Landlords just want to see you have income. Since we’re on this topic, I would highly recommend getting a business credit card so you can start building your “credit score” for your business. And the easiest bank to work with was Spark Business (now, they’re a part of Capital One) for me.

Now the real problem is, if you don’t have the startup capital, then you’re really screwed? But what If I told you that you could quickly raise capital from friends or family? Use this template as your guide to raise money and double up as a landlord pitch deck.

That’s all for now. I hope it was all very helpful to you. Good luck!