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Case studies, seasonal updates, and news from the DFW second chance leasing market.

The Library

Every guide we have written, by situation

Most people arrive here with one specific problem, not a general interest in renting. So these are sorted by what is actually on your report rather than by date.

If you are not sure which applies to you, start with how DFW apartments screen you. Knowing what a leasing office sees changes which questions matter.

Credit

Evictions and broken leases

Background records

Income and guarantors

Pets

How screening works

What We Write

What you will and won't find here

We write about the screening side of renting, because that is the part we deal with every day and the part almost nobody explains. What a look-back period actually is. Why an eviction filing shows even when you won. What a regional manager sees when a leasing agent sends up a conditional file.

You won't find listing roundups, rent predictions, or posts telling you which Dallas neighborhood is up and coming. Plenty of sites do that. You also won't find anyone promising approval, because nobody can promise that and the people who do are selling something.

If something here is out of date or wrong, we would rather hear it. Call 469-844-7368 or send us a note. Criteria change and we would rather fix a page than leave it wrong.

Start Here

Four things that surprise almost everyone

If you read nothing else on this site, read these. Each one changes what you should do next, and each one catches people who thought they understood their own situation.

An eviction is on your record from the day it was filed

Not the day it was decided. Screening databases pick up the filing, often within 30 to 60 days, whether you won, settled, or moved out before the hearing. Texas court records are presumed open and there is no general expungement route. What you can get is the written disposition from the Justice of the Peace precinct that heard it, and that document is the only thing that tells the other half of the story. More in how long an eviction stays on your record.

You are screened on the lease rent, not the advertised rent

A unit marketed at $1,250 net effective with a $1,450 lease rate gets screened at three times $1,450, not three times $1,250. That is $4,350 a month of gross income rather than $3,750. People get denied on a number they never saw on any listing. Our specials calculator shows both figures side by side.

A conditional approval is not always a deposit

Sometimes it is a double deposit, which is refundable. Sometimes it is a risk fee, which is not. Leasing agents use the words interchangeably on the phone and the difference can be a thousand dollars you never get back. Ask which one it is, and ask for it in writing before you say yes.

Electricity can stop you getting your keys

Many DFW communities will not release keys without power live in your name. Dallas is a deregulated market, so a provider runs your credit first, and if a past balance has left a switch hold on that meter no provider in Texas can connect you until it clears through Oncor. That takes weeks, not days. The deposit and switch hold estimator covers it, including the two DFW cities where none of this applies.

None of these are edge cases. They are the four we explain most often on the phone, which is why they are written down.