Renting with cats - HELP!

I need to find an apartment ASAP.  Most of the listings say they only allow one cat.  If I had two or three, that would be easy to get away with.  But I have 8 cats!  I don't want to end up in a dumpy apartment complex that doesn't care what you have.

Has anyone dealt with trying to find a rental with many more cats than is allowed?

Thanks.

I just want to clarify my original post.  I said I didn't want to end up in a dump where they don't care what you have.  What I meant was that I didn't want to live in a complex with no restrictions on pets since 99% of them are dumpy.

My cats are well behaved (for the most part) but I know the chance of finding a landlord who understands that 8 cats doesn't mean I'm a cat hoarder or that my house smells.  Actually only 5 are mine, the other three are "just visiting".  They belong to other people who can't care for them right now.

I have to ask... how did you end up with 8 cats, if you don't own your own home in the first place?

With that said, your best bet is to rent a house from an individual owner, not an apartment in a complex, and to find other arrangements for the 3 you don't own (5 is  a LOT, but you might get lucky).   If you rent a largish house, especially an older one and give an extra large deposit, you might convince them, and an individual owner has the capability to be more flexible than a complex.

I STRONGLY advise against trying to trick the landlord/owner, because when (with so many cats it is not if, but when and probably quite quickly) you are caught and evicted, basically no one will ever rent to you again.

There was a member here who told the landlord she had 3 cats, but really had, um, I think 10 at the time, and managed to keep things clean enough so that the landlord never got suspicious. Not that I recommend lying to the landlord, but you likely won't find a place that allows that many cats expressly. The most you can hope for is for them to overlook the exact number. If you keep it clean they shouldn't have reason to complain.

Private landlords are more likely to allow pets, and landlords of houses are less picky than landlords of apartments. Trailers almost always allow pets and the landlords are less likely to be picky, but some trailer parks are in the dumpy category :/. But if it's an emergency, living somewhere dumpy is better than having to get rid of the cats.

I've rented with 4-5 cats in multiple individual home rentals. There was a good amount of rejection involved but I eventually found landlords who didn't mind. I would definitely avoid apartment complexes. Try Craigslist. Good luck!

definitely stick with Craigslist and look for houses. Also try to find something down the end of a deadend or something that isn't as busy.

I have had pretty good luck with Craigslist as far as rentals. I use them for looking for a vacation rental. Sometimes it takes a bit to find something but you may want to consider a roommate who likes cats. That would help with the costs and maybe the other person can say they have cats too and some of the cats be theirs so you don't have all 10. I would strongly recommend having those 5 that are being fostered returned soon. This is going to affect you finding a place to live. At least until you are settled then maybe allow one or two but I wouldn't allow that many again. You don't need to run the risk of getting evicted for taking care of someone else's problems. This is just my personal opinion and you have to live somewhere but no where does it say we should take on more problems than we can handle.

You could also look for a rental with intent to buy. Sometimes that is possible. And once you own it you can have your fosters back and never worry about being evicted. I for one love owning my own place. It's breaking even as far as money is concerned but I found a decent trailer park where the houses are on 1/3 acre lot and no one bothers me. Some have dogs. Some have cats. Some have no pets. But I would look into this. Sometimes it's better to be able to afford a cheaper place to live and still own the home.  I couldn't afford to buy a traditional home because the property tax is super high in my state. Plus the cost of real estate is still sky high so I wonder if you can find a decent park to buy a double wide mobile home. The newer ones produced after 1994 have newer code to held up and they are just like a house except no basement. If you can locate something built 2005 or newer would be my recommendation.