Apartment Hunting 101: What to Consider

By Amanda Cohen on April 22, 2018

Apartment hunting. Let’s all take a minute to groan, roll our eyes, and bash our heads against the wall. Okay, we don’t have to take it that far, but let’s be real, apartment hunting is annoying, time-consuming, and all around just a burdensome task. This issue has become all-too-real for me since I’m graduating soon. Questions constantly are running through my head: how much rent am I willing to pay? How many roommates do I want? Do I even want a roommate? Do I want a walk-up? What location should I live in? Should there be a washer and dryer in my actual apartment, or can I settle for having one in the building? Do I find a broker to help me with all of this? Do I need a guarantor? And so on.

These questions are frightening, but they can all be solved if we just work together. Like I said, this is all stuff I’ve had to think about since I will be moving to a new city, so I’ve decided to do some research. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you my Apartment Hunting 101 Article, I promise this will be more exciting than your Calculus 101 class and it will sure as heck be easier than calculus. After reading this article I have no doubt that you will gain some insight into the whole apartment hunting gig. Read on and learn more about apartment hunting!

Image via. https://pixabay.com/en/modern-minimalist-lounge-sea-view-3100785/

Location, Location, Location

Deciding on the proper location for an apartment is crucial. There are a variety of concerns to take into consideration: (1) safety, (2) convenience, (3) liveliness, and (4) age-range of other people in the location. When choosing an apartment, safety needs to be your number one concern. You want a building that has strong security measures to deal with possible intrusions and you, in general, want to feel safe in your home and walking/driving to your home. Convenience is huge. When I say convenience, I am taking into account a variety of factors.

For example, you want to be close to your classes and/or job or you want to be close to a transportation hub that can take you to where you need to be. When it comes to liveliness and age-range, they truly go hand-in-hand. You want to live somewhere in which there are fun activities, bars, restaurants, shops, etc. that you can easily get to. In addition, you want your location to be lively in terms of the people you are living around. When headed to your neighborhood restaurant, you want to meet people your own age, not people who are so much older or younger than you. All in all, when you start your apartment hunt, narrow down your options based-off of “location, location, location.”

Broker (and I’m not Talking Stocks)

Hiring a broker may seem counterproductive at first because you are thinking that you are paying somebody to do something that can be done by supposedly making phone calls and looking on apartment websites. I don’t mean to be harsh, but you’re wrong. Apartment hunting is hard. Period. No questions asked. End of discussion. Apartment owners, subtenants, etc. are more inclined to talk to a professional than someone that they don’t even know. Having a middle-man, like a broker, makes things more professional, safer, more efficient, and highly effective. Yes, you have to pay your broker, but you are more likely to get the apartment of your dreams by using a broker than you are if you try to do everything yourself.

Brokers can help with financial negotiations and have “the in” on the hottest apartments available. They are paid to do this job, therefore they (hopefully) love it and are good at it. They are usually paid off of commission, so they are going to do their very best to get you the apartment that you want and will ensure that they go about finding this apartment in a way that you are most comfortable with. If you need a pet-friendly apartment, your broker will only show you apartments that are pet-friendly. If you want an apartment with a doorman, you can do away with all of the research and just have your broker narrow down your selection to apartments with doormen. Hire a broker, it’s worth every penny.

AMENities

Can I get an AMEN for amenities? When I’m talking about amenities, I’m talking about both the building itself and the individual apartment. There are certain amenities that I think are imperative to have in an apartment: good security, a washer and dryer in the building (or, preferably, your individual unit), a gym, and, if you’re in college, a study room! Apartments that have nice amenities are often pricier but think about all of the advantages of living in a place that can offer you so much. Yes, an apartment that has a gym will be more expensive but think about how much you would pay for a gym membership and it basically comes out about even. Actually, with gym membership prices these days, you would be doing yourself a favor by paying higher rent for an apartment that has a gym vs. an apartment with no gym.

If you’re a college student and are comparing an apartment with study rooms vs. an apartment with no study rooms, just think about finals week and how impossible it is to get a spot in the library during that time. If you have an apartment where the building has a study room, you can kiss that problem goodbye! Some people don’t need or even want amenities, but others do, so this is definitely something to take into consideration when choosing a roommate (if you want one) and deciding where you both want to live.

Infographic by Amanda Cohen

This Ain’t about the Money, Money, Money (but it Totally is)

I don’t want to start the obvious, but the price of rent is extremely important when deciding on an apartment. When you first look at the rent price, you need to ask yourself, “Is it worth it?” Sometimes, rent prices are higher for apartments that have amenities or, for example, an apartment that has washer and dryers in each room. Or, if the apartment building has top-notch security, rent prices are likely to be higher. However, you don’t want an apartment that’s going to break the bank. A way to lessen rent prices is by having multiple roommates or opting for an apartment that doesn’t include as many amenities as you would like.

Unfortunately, you have to learn to make sacrifices when finding your perfect apartment because there isn’t such thing as the perfect apartment. When deciding what your ideal rent price is, you need to take into account your employment situation, your “infatuation” for the apartment, the amenities, the number of roommates that you have, or are planning to have, and so on. I’m not an expert on rent prices, but brokers are, which is why you should get one when searching for an apartment (I cannot stress this point enough). Ultimately, when thinking about what a realistic rent price is, you need to take a lot into account, including everything that I’ve listed in this paragraph as well as what I talked about above.

Roomies 4 Lyfe

Deciding about your roommate situation is actually a crucial first step to finding an apartment. You have to consider a few things: (1) do you want a roommate? (2) If not, how will this affect your rent price? (3) If yes, how will this affect your rent price? (4) If yes, how many roommates do you want? (5) Does wanting/having a roommate make things more complicated when searching for an apartment? And so on. If you are talking about a college apartment, the roommate situation is far from permanent, so the stakes aren’t as high. However, when deciding on a roommate post-grad, you have to expect that your roommate situation will be a long-term situation, so you need to consider these questions in a much more serious light.

When deciding on who to live with, you want to consider the demands of his/her job and the demands of your own job. You also want to consider if you want a roommate of the same sex or not and whether or not you and your roommate have compatible personalities. In addition, you have to ask yourself if you want a random roommate, a friend, or an acquaintance from college. Just don’t put yourself in a roommate situation that you think you will become uncomfortable with or live with someone who isn’t on the same page socially, career-wise, and so on. If you know that you want a roommate, but you don’t know who yet, you can probably work out a deal with your broker, landlord, and/or the person you are renting the apartment from so that they give you a month or two to find a roommate for your (for example) two-bedroom apartment.

Hold on, We’re Going Home

Wherever you decide to live, you want to make sure that your landlord and/or the person you are renting the apartment from will allow you to decorate the apartment in a way so that it feels like a home to you and not just an apartment. Before signing any sort of lease, you need to understand all of the legal and creative aspects of the lease. If you insist on painting your walls blue, make sure you find an apartment where you’re actually allowed to do that. If you have to be able to put nails in the wall to hang up paintings and other artwork, make sure that you talk to your landlord about this. If your apartment would simply not be a home without a dog, you need to ensure that your building and/or individual apartment unit is pet-friendly.

Wherever you decide to live and whoever you decide to rent from needs to be transparent about what you’re allowed to do in the apartment and what you’re allowed to do with the apartment. You don’t want your apartment to be an apartment, you want it to be a home. It’s hard to make an apartment feel like home, so you need to make sure that you can take certain measures that allow you to make your new apartment your second home. Happy home, happy life (I would add the happy wife part, but most of us aren’t getting married yet so that doesn’t apply). You want to be comfortable and happy in your apartment, which is a major factor when you are apartment hunting.

Image via. https://pixabay.com/en/key-home-house-estate-business-2323278/

Finding an apartment isn’t easy, but you want to make sure that whatever you decide to do, wherever you decide to live, and however you decide to go about finding your apartment, that you are comfortable, happy, and, ultimately, you make it feel like home. I highly recommend listening to what I wrote above, and I’m not just saying this because I wrote it. I’m saying all of this through my own experiences and from observing the headache of a process that it was when my sister was finding her first apartment, where she has happily been living in for two years now.

You want to make sure that you aren’t getting ripped off and that you are living in a place that is safe. Safety is the most important factor when it comes to any living situation, so don’t let roommates, amenities, rent price, or anything else get in the way of that. If you’ve already found the perfect apartment, kudos! Be sure to check out my articles about how to decorate your new apartment in a way that suits your personality and turns your apartment into a home. To all of you who are searching for a place to live, like me, I wish you the best of luck and I know that we will all find a place to live that we love and that we feel comfortable living in. Happy apartment hunting to all of my readers!

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