FREE Search for Apartments

Hunting for rentals can be tough because demand for housing in major cities is always high. Looking for the perfect apartment requires time, patience, and skill. To conduct a successful search for rentals and to ensure that your apartment move is as smooth as possible, you'll need to have a plan. In order to gain a competitive edge over other apartment renters searching for the perfect apartment, here's what you need to know:

Guide to Apartment Rentals

Be Professional

Approach the process of looking for an apartment like you would approach a job search. To stand out as an applicant, dress to impress your possible future landlord while being professional, well-mannered, and polite. Apartment managers or landlords of high-quality units will always be looking for applicants who are responsible enough to pay their rent on time, are courteous to other tenants, and who treat their apartment with care and respect. Making a good first impression can help you get the apartment you want over applicants.

Apartment Requirements

Streamline your apartment hunting efforts by knowing what essential features and requirements you must have in the apartment. Also, determine which features and amenities you can be flexible on. Know what you're looking for in apartment rentals, including the number of bedrooms and bathrooms you will need, the size of the apartment, the proximity to schools, and the location of the apartment. It is also good to know whether you want to look for an apartment complex that provides a fitness center, a private laundry room, a doorman, etc. If you start your search knowing what you want from your new apartment, you can make decisions more quickly and chances are that you will be happier with the result. Sort your results by what's important to you before you start looking at the apartments. For instance, if the location is most important, organize your results by the apartment's distance from where you want to be.

Be Prepared

When you go apartment hunting, you'll never know when you'll find the perfect apartment. This means you may have to decide quickly on a contract or lease. It always helps to keep your renter's resume or rental history handy when you go on your apartment search. Your renter's resume should include all the information you will require to complete a rental application quickly, such as your current and previous address, your employment details, your credit history and bank statements, personal references, and personal identification. You should also be fully prepared to have a deposit or check ready for an initial deposit. A good apartment will not stay in the market for very long, and you won't want to lose out on the perfect apartment because you were not prepared.

Start Early

Over the course of your search you may be making dozens of calls to prospective complexes. To stand a better chance of speaking directly to apartment managers or landlords, consider making your calls as early as 8:30 in the morning. The best time to contact smaller apartment complexes is during the afternoon until about 5:30 in the evening. However, if you reach a voice mailbox, leave a professional but polite message that states your name and number clearly and indicates your interest in the apartment. If you get a call back from the apartment manager or landlord, and you're out, always return calls as promptly as possible.

Avoid Problems When Hunting for Rentals

• Locating the perfect apartment can take weeks. So start looking for potential rentals at least two months in advance.
• Read enough apartment rental listings and you'll learn the jargon. Terms like "near" (as in "near public transportation and exciting downtown locations") are relative and ambiguous, so do additional research if it's an important part of your search. Another example would be terms that describe space like "cozy" and "ample," or "charming," which are used to be intentionally ambiguous ("cozy" usually means "small" and "charming" can mean old), so look for factual details like the exact square footage or year when the apartment building was constructed.
• Apartments with photos are helpful but the photos can be misleading. Some rentals can look bigger or smaller than what's depicted in the photos. If the listing sounds good but you aren't sure about the photos of the place, go ahead and drive past it to help make up your mind about whether to look inside.