Let’s be honest—most of us treat rent like throwing money into a void. First of the month rolls around, you transfer that chunk of cash to your landlord, and poof, it’s gone forever. No equity, no return, nothing to show for it except the privilege of not being homeless.
But here’s something most tenants don’t realize: the rental game has quietly evolved. There are actually tools and strategies out there designed to give you something back—whether that’s credit score points, travel rewards, or just the peace of mind that you’ll actually get your security deposit returned. As someone who’s been on the landlord side of things, I can tell you that most renters have no idea these options exist. And honestly? That’s leaving real money on the table.
So let me walk you through how to flip the script and make renting work a little harder for you.
1. Turn Your Rent Payments into Credit Score Gold
Before you begin packing, take a moment to review your lease agreement. Vermont law requires tenants to give adequate notice before moving Here’s a frustrating reality: you probably pay $1,500+ every single month like clockwork, yet your credit report treats it like it never happened. Your credit score obsesses over that $47 Macy’s card you barely use, but completely ignores the largest recurring payment in your life. Makes zero sense, right?
The Strategy: If your property management company uses Buildium (and a lot of them do), there’s a feature buried in your Resident Center settings that can change this. When it’s enabled, Buildium automatically reports your on-time rent payments to all three major credit bureaus—Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.
Now, not every landlord turns this feature on, so you might need to ask. Send a polite email asking if rent reporting is available through your portal. Most property managers are fine with it once they know you want it—it costs them nothing and actually incentivizes you to pay on time.
The Result: Payment history makes up a whopping 35% of your FICO score—more than any other factor. If you’re someone with limited credit history, or if you’re rebuilding after a rough patch, getting 12-24 months of consistent rent payments on your report can be genuinely transformative. We’re talking about the difference between getting approved for that car loan at 7% versus 12%, or qualifying for a mortgage when you’re ready to stop renting altogether.
2. Turn Rent into Airline Miles (Yes, Really)
Okay, this one sounds too good to be true, but stick with me. What if you could earn rewards points on your rent the same way you earn cash back on groceries?
The Strategy: Enter Bilt Rewards. It’s an app (and credit card, if you want it) that lets you pay rent and earn points—one point per dollar, no transaction fees, no markup. Even if your landlord is old-school and only accepts checks or uses a clunky payment portal, Bilt can still make it work.
Here’s the thing that surprised me: Bilt isn’t some sketchy startup. They’ve got partnerships with major airlines (American, United, Alaska), hotel chains (Hyatt, IHG), and even fitness memberships. You can also bank those points toward a down payment on a house, which feels almost poetic—using your rent money to eventually stop paying rent.
The Result: Let’s say you pay $2,000 a month in rent. That’s 24,000 points a year. Depending on how you redeem them, that could be a round-trip domestic flight, several nights in a decent hotel, or a nice chunk toward your future down payment. It’s not life-changing money, but it’s also not nothing. And since you’re paying rent anyway, why not get something out of it?
3. Protect Your Security Deposit Like It’s Your Savings Account
Let me tell you the number one thing that causes tenant-landlord drama: the security deposit. I’ve seen friendships implode over disputes about whether a carpet stain was “pre-existing” or whether that wall scuff counts as “normal wear and tear.” The problem is that by the time you’re arguing about it, it’s too late—you’ve already moved out and the landlord has all the leverage.
Day One Documentation: The day you get your keys, before you even unpack a single box, do a thorough video walkthrough. And I mean thorough. Open every cabinet, run every faucet, flush the toilets, test the stove burners, check inside the oven. Zoom in on that mysterious stain on the carpet. Pan across the scuff marks on the baseboards. Get the chipped tile in the bathroom corner.
Why video instead of photos? Because it’s harder to claim you “missed” something when you’ve got a continuous 10-minute recording with timestamps. Plus, your verbal commentary creates context: “There’s already a crack in this window when I moved in” is a lot more convincing than a silent photo.
The Paper Trail: Here’s a landlord secret: disputes almost always favor whoever has documentation. So when something breaks—a leaky faucet, a busted AC, a toilet that won’t stop running—never rely on just a phone call. Text or email a follow-up every single time. “Hi [Landlord], just following up on our call about the leak under the kitchen sink. Thanks for saying you’ll send someone this week!”
This does two things: it creates a timestamped record that you reported the issue promptly, and it prevents the landlord from claiming you caused damage through “neglect” when you move out. I’ve seen landlords try to charge tenants $500 for water damage from a slow leak the tenant reported three times. Guess who won that dispute? The tenant with the email receipts.
4. The 30-Day Pre-Inspection That Saves You Hundreds
Most people find out what they’re being charged for after they’ve moved out, gotten their itemized deduction list, and realized they’re only getting $200 back from their $1,500 deposit. At that point, your options are basically “accept it” or “lawyer up” (which costs more than you’d recover anyway).
There’s a much smarter approach.
The Strategy: About 30 days before your lease ends, send your landlord a polite request for a pre-move-out walkthrough. Frame it as wanting to make sure you leave the place in good shape. Most landlords will actually appreciate this—it shows you’re being responsible, and it gives them a heads-up about any issues.
During this walkthrough, take notes. Ask specific questions: “Would you charge for this scuff on the wall?” “Does this carpet need professional cleaning, or is a regular vacuum good enough?” “I tried cleaning the oven, but there’s still some baked-on stuff—is that a problem?”
The Result: Now you’ve got actual intel. That nail hole you thought was no big deal? Turns out your landlord considers any wall damage a $75 patch-and-paint charge. But you can buy spackle and touch-up paint for $15 and fix it yourself in 20 minutes. That carpet cleaning they mentioned? You can rent a machine for $40 instead of getting charged $200.
I had a friend who did this and discovered the landlord was planning to charge for “excessive dirt” on the windows. She bought some Windex and spent an hour wiping them down. Saved herself $150. That’s a pretty solid hourly wage.
The Bottom Line
Look, renting isn’t ideal for building wealth—I won’t pretend otherwise. But that doesn’t mean you should approach it passively. The tools exist to make your rent payments work a little harder for you, to protect yourself from bogus charges, and to set yourself up for better financial opportunities down the road.
Most tenants never bother with any of this stuff. They pay rent, hope for the best, and then get frustrated when things don’t go their way. But you’re not most tenants—you’re someone who actually read all the way to the end of an article about rental strategies. That puts you ahead of the game already.
So pick one of these strategies—maybe start with the credit reporting or the pre-inspection—and implement it. Then add another. Before you know it, you’ll be playing a completely different game than your fellow renters. And when you finally do make the jump to homeownership, you’ll do it with a better credit score, some extra cash from those Bilt points, and your full security deposit back in your pocket.
That’s how you turn rent from a black hole into an actual strategy.