How this category is handled
Criminal history requires the most care of the three screening hubs, and we handle it differently from the other two. We state property policies as the properties state them, with a date. We do not characterize any record as automatically disqualifying, and we do not tell anyone their record will be fine. Both of those are claims nobody should be making to a renter in this position.
What we can do is useful and specific: tell you what lookback a property runs, how it categorizes offense classes, whether it reviews case-by-case, and what deposit posture to expect. That is knowable information, and having it before you spend a $50 to $75 non-refundable application fee is the entire point.
What actually moves the outcome?
Two things, consistently: the age of the offense and its class.
Most San Antonio properties run a seven-year or longer felony lookback. Class A and luxury communities tend toward the strictest end of that. Class B and C communities, the older stock where an on-site manager still reviews files by hand. Are more likely to consider an older non-violent, non-drug conviction on its facts. Misdemeanor lookbacks are commonly shorter, and an older minor misdemeanor is frequently a non-event at properties that would decline on a recent felony.
Recency compounds. A single conviction from eight years ago with nothing since reads differently from two in the last three years, and properties that permit review will weigh that.
Why does the wider legal context matter here?
Because it shapes how properties write their policies. HUD’s 2016 guidance made blanket criminal-record exclusions a disparate-impact exposure under the Fair Housing Act, which pushed a meaningful number of management companies toward individualized assessment rather than a flat ban. That does not mean every property reviews every record, plenty still run strict policies, but it is why “case-by-case review” appears in screening criteria far more often than it did a decade ago.
We are locators, not attorneys, and nothing here is legal advice. But knowing that the landscape moved is why we ask a property what its policy actually is rather than assuming the answer from its class.
Types of record and where flexibility tends to sit
Older non-violent felony. The most workable felony scenario. Class B and C communities with case-by-case review are where we start. Detail is on felony-friendly apartments.
Misdemeanor. Weighed more lightly than a felony almost everywhere, with age and severity driving the rest. Covered in misdemeanor apartments.
DWI or DUI. Categorization is the whole question. How the charge is classified on the report determines how the property weighs it. See DWI / DUI apartments.
Deferred adjudication. Appears differently depending on the screening vendor, and properties interpret it inconsistently. See deferred adjudication apartments.
What to expect from us
We will ask for the offense class, the year and the disposition, the three facts a leasing office will see. We do not need the narrative and we will not ask for it. We take what you give us, match it against stated policies we have confirmed with dates, and come back with properties whose policy would permit review, plus an honest read on how thin the list is.
If your combination of record and target rent band is genuinely difficult right now, we will say that plainly rather than sending you somewhere to be declined. Sometimes the practical answer is a different rent band, a guarantee to offset an accompanying credit issue, or waiting for a disposition to land. We would rather tell you that than take your time. It is the same standard we hold across every search our San Antonio apartment locators run, dated policy over reassurance.
