thesupermikey

I’m about to start looking for my first apartment. I was wondering if anyone had any advice. Thinks I should be looking for – questions I should be asking.

I love love for some real world input.

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Sage

Are you going to have a roommate? If so, it's good to look at apartments where the bedrooms are seperated by another room. My apartment has the living room/kitchen (it's one big room) in between the "master" bedroom and the other bedroom. This will keep noise down between you and your roommate. How big is the kitchen? If you cook at all, counter space is important. If you don't cook, but use the microwave and toaster over, counter space is doubly important because you want to make sure you have enough room for all the appliances you'll be wanting to have at hand. How much cabnet space is there? You want to make sure you'll have enough room for your glasses/plates/food. If there's not a ton of cabnet space, does the place have a pantry or a room that you can use as a pantry? My apartment has the washer/dryer room off of the kitchen, and there's enough space in there that I've got some shelves up as an extension to the cabnet space. Is there enough room for your stuff? I was amazed at how much stuff I had when I moved it all into one place for the first time. You'll probably be needing a big closet and another closet or "storage room" at least. My apartment has about a bajillion closets- and they're all full of stuff and the 2nd bathroom's bathtub is also full of stuff. I have too much stuff!

OK, that covers your space. Now onto the important items:
Is the neighborhood quiet/safe? Drive by the place you're thinking of moving in at different times of the day, on different days of the week. If it's quiet at two in the afternoon on a Tuesday, what's it like at eleven on a Friday or Saturday night? If you know which apartment you would be moving into, make sure to drive by late at night a few times to see which of your neighbors (if any) stay up late or make a lot of noise. Ask the leasing office how many times the cops have been called to the neighborhood in the past year (if they know). You might be able to call the local sheriff's office and ask if the place you're thinking of moving into has a high/low crime rate. What is the policy on pets? This is something I'm having to deal with with my neighbors. They've got two little yippy dogs that bark at EVERYTHING when they're left on the balcony, so in the afternoons I get inturrupted constantly by them barking. If you don't have a problem with your next door neighbors' dog howling all night when they're gone for the weekend, then it's not an issue, but if you do, you might want to look for somewhere that has a no pets policy, or a no pets over a certian weight policy (this means they might have small dogs but no huge, howling, deep barking ones). What happens if you pay the rent late/break your leasing agreement and move out before the lease is up/ get a noise complaint/have the cops come to your apartment? My complex sends out letters on the 6th of the month if you haven't paid the rent for that month yet- they're really hardcore about the rent being paid on time because they don't have a security deposit (because of the finacial checks they do on their renters). Also, if one was to move out before their lease was up, my complex charges them the rest of the rent for the rest of their lease- meaning, if my lease is up next May, and I move out now, I have to pay eleven month's rent when I move out unless I can find someone (who is finacially quallified) to move in and take over my lease. So, plan ahead and make sure that you really want to be in this place for however long the lease is. Most places offer twelve months, mine has sixteen, twelve, and nine month leases I believe, as well as month-by-month for about $100 over market price. About the noise violations, my complex has a "two strikes and you're out" policy where, if your neighbors complain about you being noisy once, you get a warning, and if they complain again, you get evicted. (this is like, hardcore noisy here, not "I dropped a plate on the floor and the people downstairs heard it" noisy). Also, about the cops- I'm just saying it's something to consider, but ask what the policy is. For instance, if you're just sitting at home and the cops come to your door because one of your neighbors is paranoid and thinks you're smoking pot, will the apartment complex evict you the next day or will you get the chance to explain why they were there? Just something else to ask about.

More tips:
Inspect the apartment you'll be living in before you sign anything!!! MAKE SURE you do this- if they say "oh it's not ready yet" tell them that's ok, you just want to make sure it's where you want to be- any reputable place will be more than happy to make sure you want to be there. Ask what they do to the apartment before you move in- how thoroughly do they clean it? Do they clean the carpet? Do they paint the walls? Do they change the locks? Also, when you move in most places will have you go through the place with a checklist and have you list anything and everything that is wrong with the place that was there when you got there- and I mean EVERYTHING. See that little black stain on the floor next to the stove? If it was there when you got there, MARK IT- otherwise you'll be paying for a new floor when you move out.
Ask about their maintance policy If you break something, will they fix it and if so, how soon? If your dishwasher goes on the fritz on Friday, can someone fix it over the weekend? My place has a maintance guy on call 24/7, and he lives in the complex, so he can come at any time day or night to fix things. However, there are things that they consider "emergencies" (heat not working when it's snowing, toilet overflowing, etc) that they'll come do at night when other trival things (like a lightbulb being out) will wait till daylight. What will they fix and what won't they? My place is amazingly good about checking out ANYTHING I ask them to, and also about doing routine maintance on the place- I've got a fireplace and they have chimmeysweeps come around every fall to clean the chimmneys. They also repaint the siding and check the outdoor A/C units regularly.
What does the complex look like? Use your eyes to tell you a little bit about where you'll be living- do they have nice landscaping? Are their signs and offices neat, clean, painted? Are the people working there neat and clean? Do they have namebadges? Are they polite? Do they seem to really care about you having a great expirence renting from them? My place's people are always on the ball, caring, considerate, and they have fresh cookies every day in the leasing office Are the buildings in good shape? Do you see any signs of the place being "run down"? If the buildings are older, do they look like they've been kept up well?
Is it worth it to live there? Does the commute validate the slightly higer price/great pool/balcony/tennis court? Does the lower price validate the fact that the closets are smaller than you'd like? Make sure you're getting someplace that you like, feel comfortable with (size wise and apperance wise), feel safe at, and that you'd like to come home to at the end of a busy day. The only thing I regret about my apartment is that it overlooks the parking lot instead of the lawn- but when I moved in I didn't expect to be here for three years- so plan ahead for any contingency!!

Good luck finding a place, and feel free to start a "What do I need for my new apartment?" thread when you finally find that perfect place!!

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Disk_Pusher

Damn Sage, you hit every nail on the head!

I have a few of my own, but the important ones have alread been said.

Inspect inspect inspect! Sage said it, but I'll say it again because it's farkin' important. Make DAMN sure that the apartment getting shown is the apartment you'll be getting. The old bait and switch is very much still alive, and it got my SO an apartment that reeked of cat piss.

Never let the sales guy/manager fast talk you. Take your time, be observant.

For the love of GOD, make sure your apartment has AC.

And last but not least, parking. The complex I'm living in now has a craptacular parking policy ($20 for a permit but there aren't enough spots to go around for everyone with a permit by a long shot) and I didn't bother to ask about it until after I moved in and had to park my car 2 blocks away. >:\

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thesupermikey

thats great - thanks!

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If you are not outraged than you are not paying attention!

"Reality has a well-known liberal bias" - Steven Colbert

ShaniFaye

I also recommend, when you do find a place, take pictures of every wall, every room, the floor etc before you move one stick of furniture in. If there are ANY things they say...oh we'll get that fixed, I would get it in writing and keep it with a picture of the "problem" that way there are no problems when you go to leave and they will have a real hard time trying to prove that something they "forgot" to take care of was damage you did yourself.

yes, I've been there...twice....and won both times because of the pictures I took.

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maleficent

if you are looking at any 'complex' type places, managed by a company... Check out www.apartmentratings.com... They are reviews of the place by the people who live there... Some you have to take with a grain of salt - but for the most part, they are pretty accurate, and you will get a sense of the good with the bad.

Check any place you rent at various hours. Places that look fine during daylight hours, you might not want to be in when it gets dark (I actually had a real estate agent try to convice me that this place I had looked at on the South side of Chicago, next to a housing project was a great place to live)

Find out the demographic of where you are living... if it's old people (like me) they will get ticked off at music at 2am... of if you are living around seniors (like I am) they are hard of hearing and the telly is usually on full blast.. leaving my livingroom unlivable (and the management office won't do anything about it) If there are children around - children make noise, generally outside on saturday mornings - if you want to s leep in -it is n ot always good.

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odu_sonar_AE

Make sure you have everything you need in writing. Verbal agreements are quickly forgotten after you sign the piece of paper.

If you are unsure of the area, make sure to check the crime statistics, and as Maleficent stated, visit during various times of the day/night. A couple of hours can make a world of difference in how a place can appear.

Make sure you know in advance what needs to be done if you need to (hopefully not) break the lease. Everyone goes in with intentions of staying the lease terms, but things can come up that can make you want/have to break the lease for whatever reason.

As is stated before, inspect like crazy. If they don't provide one, make sure you have a way to provide a list of defective items when you move in. Most places require you submit a list within a few days of moving in....make sure to do so b/c otherwise they will assume everything is fine.

Keep copies of all correspondence with the landlord. If needed, send items through certified mail. I once had a crappy landlord that was hard to reach. I made sure to send items certified, so if I ever had to go to court, I had proof that they had not responded.

Pay attention to the lease renewal date. Most places are 1 year, but different places actually have different lengths based on their "rental seasons." Most times you need to respond at least 30 days before the lease expires to say you want out of yor apartment. If you don't repsond, they might assume you want to stay.

Take some time, and a little money, and buy a book on renters rights. There are a lot of items that most 1st timers would not know. I used one of these books to "fight" with a crappy landlord.

Get Renters Insurance. It is usually rather cheap for a decent amount of coverage.

The most important thing I can say is to take your time when you go to sign any documents & inspect your place. Let no question go unanswered, and don't assume anything.

Good luck!

shalafi

Not a huge deal but one thing on my list for my next place is if there is no dishwasher im going to make sure there is a double sink in the kitchen. Its a real pain in the ass washing and rinsing dishes with only one sink.

Rodney

Do you have problems with certain chemicals or pesticides? If so, find out if management sprays for bugs, and what they spray with.

If the place looks great but the manager's creepy, it might be best to give it a pass. The best battles are the ones you don't have to fight.

Sage

oooo yes! Renters Insurance! Mine is like.... $15 a month or so, and I have $27K on the contents and $300K for medical- AKA if you fall off the balcony and it's because I did something wrong my insurance will pay for $300K of your medical bills.

Also, if you get renter's insurance, make sure it's for REPLACEMENT value. This means, if a theif steals your TV, you don't get the actual value of the TV (say, it's a SONY 32" from five years ago- worth about $150 from the pawn shop) you get the amount of money it would take to replace the TV today (so, $350 to buy a new one). Very important!!!

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