Apartments That Review a Record Case by Case in Dallas

Income is the number that decides it

Not the record. Income.

Most Dallas properties want 3x the rent in gross monthly income. Some run 2.5x. A few run 2x. Before a screening result matters, the application has to clear that multiple, and a renter who does not clear it is stopped at a gate that has nothing to do with a record.

At $5,000 a month gross, 3x qualifies you around $1,666, 2.5x around $2,000, and 2x around $2,500. Knowing which properties run which multiple is half the work, and it is the same gate that decides apartments for bad credit — income clears first, then the file gets read.

Because that multiple is applied to rent, what an apartment actually costs per month changes which properties you qualify for at all.

The seven-year lookback

Most Dallas properties apply a seven-year felony lookback window. Convictions older than that frequently fall outside what the property screens against. Convictions inside it get evaluated against the property’s stated policy, which varies by operator and sometimes by asset within the same operator.

Three things change the outcome:

• Offense age. The single biggest variable, and the one that improves without you doing anything.
• Offense class. Violent, drug, and property offenses are treated differently by different operators, and pending charges read differently from closed cases.
• Disposition. A dismissal, a deferred adjudication, and a conviction are three different records. An order of nondisclosure or an expungement changes what surfaces at all.

We state these as facts about property policy. We do not tell you a record is disqualifying, and we do not tell you it is fine. Blanket exclusions based on criminal history carry disparate-impact exposure under HUD’s 2016 guidance, which is one reason individualized assessment exists at all.

Which properties review case by case

Some Dallas managers exercise judgment under seven years. Others run a fixed criteria set with no human step in it.

Older stock is where judgment survives most often. Roughly 19% of Dallas rentals were built between 1980 and 1989 and 18% between 1970 and 1979 — a single-source figure worth re-verifying against Census ACS, but the pattern holds in what we see: buildings with a decision-maker on site rather than an automated criteria gate.

That is the list we maintain. Which management companies review individually, what they ask for when they do, and the date we last confirmed it. Read which Dallas properties review a record case by case for how we identify them.

Misdemeanor drug possession and DUI/DWI

Both are workable at a range of Dallas properties. The variables are the same: how long ago, what the disposition was, and whether the property’s criteria address misdemeanors separately from felonies. Many do.

If your record is a misdemeanor, say so plainly when you contact us. It changes the property set immediately and usually widens it.

A criminal record frequently sits alongside a rental-history one. If yours does, eviction-record locating and broken-lease locating cover how those screen separately.

How screening actually runs

Dallas properties screen through RentGrow, CoreLogic SafeRent, TransUnion SmartMove, RealPage, Experian RentBureau, and Contemporary Information Corp. The property sets the thresholds inside the vendor’s system; the vendor does not decide, the property does. That is why two buildings using the same vendor can reach different answers on the same file.

If a property denies you based in whole or part on a consumer report, federal law requires an adverse action notice naming the reporting agency. That notice tells you which vendor to dispute with if the record is wrong.

We never see any of it. We do not obtain, request, receive, or store your consumer report, screening file, or credit report. There is no permissible purpose under the FCRA for a locator to pull one. Everything we do here runs off what you tell us.

What to send us before you apply

Applications in Dallas run $50 to $75 per adult and are not refundable. Three of them is $200 gone, and three guesses is what happens without matching.

Send us these:

1. Offense class — felony or misdemeanor, and the category if you know it
2. How long ago — the year is enough
3. Gross monthly income — before tax, including 1099, gig, and commission income if that applies
4. Probation or parole status, if it applies, since some properties ask about it separately from the offense itself

Do not send us documents. Do not send us your screening report. We will not ask for either.

What comes back

A list of Dallas properties whose stated criteria fit what you described, each with the income multiple, the credit minimum, effective rent, total monthly cost, and the date we verified it. Where a property reviews case by case, we say what it asks for.

We describe what properties require. We never promise approval, and any locator who does is selling you something they cannot deliver.