5 Things to Consider Before Deciding on Apartment Rentals

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Finding a perfect apartment can be very time-consuming, regardless of whether this is your first ever apartment run or not. Good apartments are seldom easy to find and there are multiple things that you need to consider before deciding on a rental.

Some important criteria include its proximity to your office, the rent, the lease, as well as the environment around the neighborhood. The best apartment rentals can be difficult to shortlist, so you need to think about what you prioritize in an ideal apartment.

The following are five things you should consider during your search for the perfect apartment:

1. The price of the apartment

The price of the apartment is probably the most crucial deciding factor. Before shortlisting an apartment, you should consider whether you can afford living in it. Like, is the average rent in Dallas much more affordable than in Austin, though both are in Texas? After all, you don’t want to be living in an apartment where you’re struggling to make rent every month.

If you do like an apartment that is a little over your budget, you should consider which expenses you’d be cutting back on to accommodate the increased rent expense every month. Either that, or you’d have to consider pulling back on your privacy and get a roommate to share the rent expense.

2. The neighborhood of the apartment

Before you decide on an apartment, make sure that you take a good look at your neighborhood in order to understand the community around you a bit more. You should assess the neighborhood’s general age and demographic in order to understand whether or not you’d be a good fit in it.

You should also consider looking up the neighborhood’s safety record in order to check whether the neighborhood is a safe place or not. You may even try to have a conversation with the neighbors around your apartment to get a general idea.

3. The lease of the apartment

You should consider asking a lawyer or a realtor to go over your lease contract thoroughly before you consider signing it. This is because legal language may be too complicated for you and your landlord may try to cheat you in various ways.

Additionally, you should consider whether the lease contract allows you to sublet the apartment at a later stage, the time period of the lease, the due date for rent each month, etc. Another point worth considering is whether you are allowed to have any roommates according to your contract or not.

4. The amenities of the apartment

The amenities of the building and the apartment matter a lot when you are deciding on whether or not you want to rent it. If you wish to maintain a certain lifestyle, you need to ensure that the apartment’s amenities fit in with your lifestyle.

Some of the points you should consider include whether the building has a doorman, whether the building has a security guard, is there a gym in the building or nearby, and whether the building has a community washing machine.

You should also consider how far the building is from your place of work or study, and if there are any entertainment options available nearby.

5. The utility costs of the apartment

You will have to incur a monthly cost for utilities in addition to the rental cost and hence you need to clearly lay out which utilities you are responsible for covering separately and which ones are already a part of your lease agreement. Utilities typically include water, gas, electricity, and air-conditioning.

If you picked a good rental, your lease may already cover one or two of these costs in the monthly apartment rent. You should read your lease agreement carefully and speak to the landlord to clearly understand which utilities you’d have to pay for separately and which ones are covered.

While looking for and choosing an apartment may seem like an easy task, it is actually much more complicated than that and requires a lot of homework and research. Apartment hunters should carefully lay out their preferences and choices, and then shortlist apartments that fit into their criteria.