“Do you have a guarantor?”
This question is becoming the bane of my existence.
I got a $98k/year job. I was over the moon about this salary, having never made a salary at all before, until I was forced to begin apartment hunting.
It took me some time to make peace with the idea of blowing 50% of my income on rent. I am aware that I already don’t qualify for a lot of these apartments under the 40x income requirement, but for the ones that I do qualify for, I still get the question about whether I have a guarantor.
My parents were able to guarantee me on my $700 room a decade ago, but not on a $2400 apartment. They are also retired, have a lot of expenses of their own, and are not in great health. They do not and have never made anything near $200,000. Why does this matter? Well, it does, apparently, because every time I say I don’t have a guarantor, I can tell it’s being used against me in a competitive application process.
I have heard of people hiring third party guarantors (which already sounds like yet another poor tax, but whatever). Hey, I’m willing to pay a months rent if it secures me a good place. I’m also aware of the names of some of these services. But every person I’ve interacted with has no idea what I’m talking about.
Is this a real thing people do? What are you supposed to do if your parents don’t make $200,000 a year?