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I actually was helping a guy through pm's that was asking a similar question, saying, "in my family's situation, are we going to have problems getting an apartment?"
Here's what I say to everyone...depending on the building, as there are different 'requirements' for each, but in general...the decision has been made when I see you at the door. I'm worse for that than Dino. Basically, I come down to the door and I take a look, are we doing well today, or do you get the short tour. When we actually start talking, it either tanks your good impression, reinforces it, or occasionally someone that I would have been a no on comes back to the yes camp.
A few examples:
1. We had a goofy guy come in and take a look at a fairly decent apartment pre-reno. He brought his cousin with him. The cousin was weird. One weird dude. But we weren't renting to him. The guy we rented to tells us that he was rejected at so many places, some, they didn't even show the apartment, just straight off at the door. I've never done that, I will at least hear you out.
His place was spotless, he paid his rent on time every single month and he was an excellent guy that even helped when I was working on the front lawn one day, not for money, but just to hang out and do something physical. I call that a win. We wrote him a glowing reference to help out on his next place.
Dino saw it, I didn't. I was wrong.
2. We had a girl the other day that was asking about apartments. Dino is talking to her and in 15 seconds we get: was in rehab when her car was repo'ed tanking credit, can she use her father's social insurance number?
First impression without talking to her? Was good. Normal looking chick.
3. My favorite is we had one guy that was full on bankruptcy at 23. He is one of the best tenants...clean neat freak, super friendly. Denied all over town. We were both an instant yes. Rent has never been late and I'm serious, his apartment is spotless. I call that a win.
The problem I see is people have a very small window of what they view as acceptable. A lot of the problem is property management companies. The difference between what they do and what we do is almost night and day. We worked for a pm company-once. Hated it. We showed an apartment, and then sent the application off to the great black void that was their office and they made the decision. They never met you, or cared to. The decision making ability on anything was pulled away from us, which was annoying as we were the people at our other buildings. Even worse, the decisions they made were stupid, convoluted and mostly wrong. So in that case, if its a no cat building, it doesn't matter what you say...you aren't moving in. You can be martha fucking stewart with an OCD complex with a bad credit score and...no dice. It's just not the person's decision that you are talking to.
So in turn, they'll take a shitty tenant just because on paper, you meet some numerical requirement and find someone to fake a reference. Fun process to watch play out.
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