The short answer
Most Texas communities run a credit check when you apply. What matters is how property managers read the results.
Some complexes use a hard cutoff, often somewhere from 550 to 620 in our notes, and anyone below it gets denied automatically. Others have a middle zone for conditional approval and look at your whole financial file.
At those communities, managers look at four things besides your score:
- Verifiable income: Can you prove you earn three times the monthly rent?
- Rental history: Do you have a clean record with no recent evictions?
- Collection types: Medical debts get a lot more slack than broken leases.
- Time passed: A default from three years ago hurts less than a recent one.
We’re the No Credit Check Apartment Team, a licensed real estate team brokered by Spirit Real Estate Group, LLC (TREC #562021). Our team brings more than 20 years in real estate and works with property managers across Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and San Antonio. We help renters with credit problems find Texas communities whose criteria may fit them.
What that means for you
With a 500 score, you need a community where a person reviews your file, and the reason your score is low shapes your chances. A 510 from maxed out credit cards looks completely different to a landlord than a 510 from a past foreclosure.
We often help renters whose score dropped after a setback they couldn’t avoid.
Property managers look closely at where your collections came from. Paid medical collections came off credit reports in July 2022, and since April 2023 the three bureaus don’t report medical collections under $500.
That’s a voluntary policy from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. A federal rule that would have removed all medical debt was struck down in 2025, so larger medical collections can still show up. Many property managers go easier on them than on other debt, but they don't ignore them.
A broken lease or a recent eviction is the hardest thing to get past. If an unpaid balance at a past apartment is behind your 500 score, most communities will deny you until it’s paid or on a plan.
Here’s how communities look at different kinds of debt:
| Debt Type | How Much It Hurts | What Landlords Usually Do |
|---|---|---|
| Medical Debt (Over $500) | Less than most | Often gets more slack when a person reviews your file. |
| Foreclosure / Old Loan Default | Some | Sometimes approved with a higher deposit or risk fee. |
| Credit Card Collections | Some | You’ll need proof of strong income now. |
| Broken Lease / Eviction | A lot | Good chance of an instant denial. |
Conditional approval is how a lot of these applicants get a second look. Communities willing to look past a 500 score usually ask for a risk fee or an extra deposit to cover the risk they’re taking on.
How Texas communities handle it
Most Texas communities screen through outside companies, and many of those use their own rental scores instead of a standard FICO score. Those scores try to predict whether you’ll pay rent and finish the lease.
Property managers use software from companies like TransUnion SmartMove, RealPage LeasingDesk, and AppFolio. Each one pulls different information to build your profile.
We see applicants get surprised by their rental scores all the time. TransUnion SmartMove uses its own model called ResidentScore. It grades applicants on a scale from 350 to 850.
TransUnion says ResidentScore catches 15% more evictions than a typical credit score. The lower your ResidentScore, the higher the risk group you land in.
Why generic searches don’t help
Searching “no credit check apartments” mostly turns up generic sites that skip how screening works, and applying blind gets expensive.
Application fees usually run $50 to $75 per person.
Two adults can easily lose $150 in one afternoon applying at a property with a hard 620 minimum. You avoid that when we find out the property’s minimum before anyone applies.
For the other ways around a low score, see our bad credit guide or the related guides below.
What to do next
Before you put in another application, let us check the property’s approval criteria and its score minimum. If 500 is under the line, that fee is gone.
Worried about another rejection? Send us your score and income. Within 24 to 48 weekday hours, we’ll come back with Texas communities whose criteria may work for a score like yours. It’s free to you.
Property managers pay us a referral fee directly from their marketing budgets.
Related reading: bad credit · apartment risk fees