My wife and I will be moving to a new, major US city soon, and will be renting an apartment. For the first 18 months, we will both be in graduate programs and our income will be rather low, about 2-2.5x rent.
However, after she finds a job after she graduates, we will have a healthily average income for the area. One reason we are considering this scheme is so we don't have to move after 18 months, and can find an apartment that fits our budget in two years.
We anticipated this, and have saved up what amounts to a good amount more than two and a half years' worth of rent for the apartments we're looking at in this new city. We are mostly looking at smaller units where I expect we'll be able to talk to the owner personally, but a few larger complexes.
We would like to be able to go to a landlord and say basically, we don't have three times the income (or whatever they ask for), but look, we have enough money to pay you for at least a year's lease without working, even though we will be.
We both have good credit, 750+.
What is the best way to prove this to a landlord? Is it a good suggestion to try? I'd even be willing to consider prepaying some amount of rent or a large deposit, but I don't know how landlords will feel about that.
Although I'm giving the whole background here, this question is really about the first 12 months where we're essentially trying to combine part-time wages with large savings.