The short answer
A third party guarantor is a company that cosigns your lease and guarantees the rent to the community in exchange for a fee. It checks your income and credit against its own bar before it signs on. It can help with a credit or income problem. But it only covers money, so it usually won’t help with an eviction or a criminal record.
We’re the No Credit Check Apartment Team, a licensed real estate team brokered by Spirit Real Estate Group, LLC (TREC #562021). Between us we have more than 20 years in real estate, working with property managers across Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and San Antonio. We point renters with credit, eviction and record problems to communities whose criteria may fit them, and each property makes its own rental decision.
What that means for you
The guarantor runs its own approval check, called underwriting, on your income and credit. Each provider sets its own income bar.
A guarantor can help with a credit or income problem. It usually won’t help with an eviction or a criminal record. It covers money the property could lose, not how a renter acts.
How Texas communities handle it
Texas property managers screen through a handful of companies, including TransUnion SmartMove, RealPage LeasingDesk, and AppFolio. Some check rent payment data from Experian RentBureau, and old apartment balances often show up through collection agencies like NCAC. Each one pulls up different information, and each management company reads it differently.
A denied application usually costs $50 to $75, and those fees stack up fast when you apply without knowing how a property screens.
For more on renting with backup on the lease, see our page on guarantor and cosigner help or the related guides below.
What to do next
Don't know where to apply, or tired of paying fees just to get turned down? Don’t guess. Send us your situation and we’ll point you to Texas communities worth a look. It’s free to you; communities pay our referral fee out of their advertising budgets.
Related reading: guarantor and cosigner help · what a lease guarantor costs in Texas