Searching For the Right Apartment Home For You

Apartment hunting can be a stressful experience, and with good reason. Not only might it require much of your time, but the process can leave you feeling frustrated, disappointed, desperate, or even overwhelmed. For your search to be as effective as possible, you need to try your best to keep stress out of the picture

Fortunately, this isn't as tough as it sounds. Here are six tips to help you find the right apartment without the stress:

1. Know what you want.

Before you venture out there to look at apartments, take the time to decide on what you want in an apartment. Ask yourself questions such as:
* How many bedrooms and bathrooms do I need?
* How much closet space do I need?
* How important is size?
* How important is location?
* Are any features -- such as a good view, crown molding, an updated kitchen, or built-in shelves -- important?
* Where will I park my car, or where can people who visit me park their cars? Where can I put my bike?
* What amenities are important to me? Do I need a doorman, laundry in the building or on the floor, or a fitness center?
* Are pets allowed?
As you ask yourself these questions, decide what your limits are. For example, if you need to live within walking distance of where you work or go to school, look at a map or actually take a walk around the area so you can decide just how far away you'll look.

Also, think about whether there may be acceptable alternatives for meeting your needs. For example, say you need a lot of storage space.

A building that offers a basement storage area to each tenant would perhaps be ideal, but it may not be necessary. If you don't need to access your stuff often, renting space in a nearby self-storage facility might do the trick.

Once you're set on exactly what you're looking for in an apartment, go hunting while keeping all your criteria in mind. Don't waste time checking out listings for apartments that won't fit the bill. For instance, if you must live with your dog, then ask a potential landlord whether she allows pets in her building, or communicate your needs to your broker early on.

2. Stay focused and don't get discouraged.

When you start feeling frustrated with your apartment search, don't despair! Instead, stay focused and keep your eye on the prize. Remember just how excited you were when you started your search, and try to visualize how happy you'll be once you find the right place.

Many apartment hunters also get discouraged when they find what they think is the right apartment only to lose out to someone who beat them with an earlier deposit. If this happens to you, tell yourself that it wasn't meant to be, and just keep at it. So many people have stories about how they missed out on their "dream apartment" only to wind up with something even better. Just think that you'll have such a story to tell one day.

3. Set realistic goals and expectations.

It's hard to find tenants who can tell you that they found the perfect apartment without much effort. Don't expect anything different for your search, and you won't be disappointed. This way, if you find an apartment immediately, great. If not, you'll just take it in stride and know that it's just a matter of time until you reach your goal.

4. Create a plan of action with your roommates.

If you're looking for an apartment with a roommate, discuss what your plan of action is. If you're both too busy to see every listing together, decide how you'll divvy things up. Perhaps you'll alternate the days each of you look at listings, or you'll each be responsible for dealing with different brokers. If only one of you sees an apartment and it passes muster, you can both return to see it again. If you're in a hot market where good apartments tend to go fast, you may decide to go together to visit the ones that strike you as the most promising.

5. Stay organized and take good notes.

Once you start to see more than a few apartments, it's easy to get them confused. Stay organized by taking good notes about your apartment hunting efforts. For example, make a chart (by hand or on your computer) that lists the following:
* an apartment's address; * the broker, owner, or tenant and their contact information; * the number of bedrooms and bathrooms; * the pros and cons; * any promises that were made; and * additional notes.
Use an accordion file to hold any brochures, advertisements, floorplans, listings, photos, or other printed material you have.

6. Ask questions.

Choosing a place to live is a serious matter, so don't be afraid to ask questions. If you don't like the answers you hear or you suspect that your broker or a landlord isn't being honest with you, move on.

If you visit an apartment with a broker and the current tenant is home, take advantage of the opportunity. Ask the tenant questions such as the following:
* Does the heat really work? * Does the apartment get too much or too little sun? * How much are the utility bills each month? * Is noise from neighboring apartments a problem? * Do you think the building and the neighborhood are safe?

Hopefully, you're already feeling less stressed just from having read these tips. If you keep them in mind as you search for your next apartment, you can look forward to a more pleasant path toward finding that perfect place you'll soon call home.

By Karma Amarande

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Renting Apartment to a Tenant With Eviction History

While ordering background check on a prospective tenant, an average landlord would normally focus on the subject's criminal and credit history check. But wouldn't it make sense to add some emphasis to locating possible eviction history of your subject? Especially considering that some jurisdictions prohibit discrimination based on criminal history or conviction of certain types of crimes

If you so far have failed to include screening your potential tenants against existing databases of evictions into the list of pre-rent checks to be done, this is the sort of the omission that should be corrected further on.

The very first thing you are advised to do during the interview with the applicant is to ask a question whether your potential tenant has had any evictions in the past. If in the process of background check that can follow it comes up that the subject lied to you, that taken alone may form substantial grounds for legally refusing to let such tenant in

But what if your applicant honestly responds he or she does have eviction history and that they are on the record, but you still don't like them and wouldn't like to get into landlord-tenant relationship with them? This is the very instance you should be ready to produce your leasing policy

Landlord can safely refuse to rent to someone with a fresh eviction record who was evicted for non-payment. But if the eviction record of your subject in not too recent, and if the eviction was due to something different than refusing to pay the rent in time (for example, eviction due to keeping pets in animal-restricted area), you will be better off if you don't just reject bluntly. You may, as a landlord, after some background history check, opt to accept applicant with eviction record. Especially if they rent together with a responsible co-signer, who qualifies

Talking to some property managers with experience, I discovered that many of them stick to the rule that if the eviction record is somewhere around 10 years old or so, then instead of rejecting your tenant, you should run some investigation of his/her eviction history through public criminal records available to you. On many instances you will find out that your prospective tenant's past eviction was just due to very young age of the individual. If your potential renter is able to provide good references (that can be verified too) and doesn't refuse to submit to a tenant background check, you may consider signing a lease agreement with certain reservations prompted to you by your common sense, your own past experience, and the current situation on the rentals market

By C. Dyson

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How to Rent an Apartment Without a Job

Apartment rental demand is up, notably because of the foreclosure epidemic that is sweeping the country. It is true that on the same token home values are dipping and this means that it has never been a better time to buy. Nevertheless, apartment managers are reporting record applications because more and more people are who previously had homes now want to rent first before they can buy. Then there is the economy. While the number of jobless claims have declined somewhat according to the US Department of Labor, the rate of unemployment continues to be a problem and many families are finding that they are faced with both a foreclosure and joblessness at the same time. How can one rent an apartment when they have no job and therefore no certifiable income?

Ask to speak to the manager

When searching for an apartment and you have extenuating circumstances, always speak with the manager directly. This puts your issue in front of someone who can do something about it rather than a front desk operative who can be prejudiced against you because of your income deficiency. Inform the manager than you have been previously employed and that you have resumes out and have interviews lines up.

Show other assets

If you have recently sold your home then you may have some money in the bank that is equivalent to three months in rent. There are however those that have not recently sold their home simply because they didn't have one. If you are just in between jobs and do not have three months worth of assets in an account then use your 401(k) if you have one. Other assets may include money market accounts, stocks, CDs, investments and other tangible sellable assets.

Get a cosigner

If you do not have a job and do not have any money then you might want to get someone to cosign for you. This can be anyone as long as they have verifiable income, good rental history and a reasonable credit rating. Cosigners can be a great way to be approved for an apartment if you are not currently employed.

Look for sublets

Regular apartments will more or less conduct job history checks and income verification on all potential tenants and the criteria for approval is usually 3 times the amount of rent. That simply means your income must be three times the amount of the rent otherwise you may either need a cosigner or you may need to look for a cheaper apartment. There are however, ways of getting an apartment that does not conduct these checks and this is by looking for sublets. A sublet is an apartment that is under someone else's lease but the person now leases to you or lets you assume responsibility for paying rent. In many of these cases a credit check or an income verification check is never conducted.

By Irene James

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