4 Apartment-Hunting Tips You'll Wish You'd Used Sooner

By Julia Dunn on November 18, 2017

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Apartment hunting is usually a stressful task for almost anyone. You have to actively search near and far for properties in your price range, then look to see if you even qualify to apply, and then prepare countless rental applications. This not only sucks up your time, but it sucks up energy and can drain morale if your search drags on across weeks or months.

The truth is, all of this is even harder now in the slim housing markets across the U.S. The competition is steep to get into good properties and you want to make sure you know everything about the place before you sign a lease.

How can you prevail? Here are four apartment-hunting tips you will wish you’d known (or used) sooner; they are simple, yet easily overlooked!

1. Advertise to friends and family that you are seeking housing

It would be somewhat silly not to find housing simply because you didn’t publicize that you are looking for housing in the first place! One resource many people overlook when apartment hunting is their own circle of friends, family, and acquaintances.

You might assume that a Craigslist post will be most effective or that that alone will attract renters with properties, but you’d be surprised by the power of your own circle. Often, your connections may have friends (or friends of friends) with open properties and they can give you a personal recommendation.

One of the best tips for getting a great apartment is to exercise all of your possible resources, including asking folks you know!

2. Consult with others during the searching process

Apartment hunting shouldn’t be a solitary process you do alone or even with just your roommates. You should be bouncing questions off your friends, parents or whoever may be around to lend advice about how to reason with a strict landlord or how to put together a compelling application package.

Leaning on others can make the application processes easier and more feasible in your mind, and you’ll feel better knowing you have resources throughout this complicated set of steps to find a great apartment.

3. When you tour a place, check everything out (and ask questions)

Don’t be too quick to say yes just because a landlord let you into the place for a tour. Check things you normally might not check in a first walkthrough: outlets (do they work?), showers (how’s the water pressure? Is there a tub?), and does the unit look well-maintained in general? A neglectful landlord could be a real pain if you move in only to realize the walls don’t necessarily hold up well during the rainy season.

Image via Pixabay.com

You should also remember to ask as many questions as you need to to get a good sense of a prospective apartment situation. When is rent due and is there a grace period? If so, how long is it, and how are late fees assessed? Do you have a guest policy? A pet policy? Will you enter my apartment without advance notice? What are your rules around subletting? Can I decorate my walls at all?

These are only a few of the questions you may want to think about asking before signing any papers. Any resistance to answering questions (on the renter’s behalf) may be a red flag.

4. Search smart

Add yourself to Facebook groups dedicated to local housing posts and sign yourself up to receive notifications when someone makes a new post.

Apartment hunting is a great reason to be glued to your phone and to look at every post as soon as possible. Often times, it’s a first-come-first-served situation for landlords looking to take their listing off the market. Landlords don’t really enjoy apartment-leasing any more than we enjoy looking for housing.

Being timely and reaching out to renters quickly can be the difference between you getting the apartment and losing the apartment simply because you failed to act fast. You’ll find the most housing opportunities if you make use of social media groups, Craigslist, newspaper ads, and any other websites dedicated to apartment hunting. It can feel overwhelming trying to keep all of the potentially good listings in order, but this is nothing a well-organized spreadsheet can’t solve. Searching smarter means you’ll be searching for a shorter amount of time.

To find a great apartment, you need to put in as much effort as possible into your search. You probably knew this, but it really is a “you get out what you put into it” sort of endeavor. Go to open houses prepared with information about yourself, references, even a resume if you’re a student trying to cut past the harmful stereotypes attached to college students (i.e. prove that you’re focused, not a party person, etc).

Above all, trust your intuition when apartment hunting; if something doesn’t feel right with the landlord, if the property and price are far too good to be true, or if something feels scammy about the arrangement, drop it and move on to somewhere else. Intuition can save you from an awful housing experience. Good luck!

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