Ready to Start Your Apartment Search? Make it Easy!

There are so many apartments for rent – just look out the car window while driving around town, you’llsee ‘Now Renting’ sign everywhere…so why is the apartment search process so difficult?While it’s easy to turn a 6-month apartment lease into an interminable nightmare, it’s not easy to turn a6-month lease into something less than six months. A little advance planning can make your leaseterm a happy living experience. Your apartment search can be a valuable learning experience (you’lluse these techniques in every real estate transaction you engage in from now on).First of all, be sure of what you’re looking for when you begin your apartment search. If you’re likeother folks, you think you know what you want in your new apartment. So off you go, looking at newapartments and finding the place of your dreams. Then two months later, a friend’s new apartment isthe site of a popcorn and movie night. You think, “What did I ever see in my apartment? It’s a terriblefloor plan!” Or you can’t get the apartment maintenance crew to come fix the leaky shower. Youwonder how you overlooked service and the people running the community. Sound familiar?There are some steps you can take to help yourself make a good decision.

Calculate your budget before you do anything. Today, people spend between one-quarter andone-third of their monthly income on rent/mortgage payments. So if you make $2,500 a monthin salary, you can spend between $625 and $825 per month on your rent. If you can find aplace with utilities included, that’s a bonus. You’ll have more money for take-out.

Figure out where you want to live – not just the city, but maybe the area of town or theneighborhood. That kind of information can be hard to come by, but be diligent. If you go tohubbuzz.com, you can find neighborhood maps and descriptions to help you get a good viewof neighborhoods. And when you’ve got some ideas, drive the neighborhood or communityyou’re thinking about moving to. Stop and have a cup of coffee. Sit and watch people, traffic,the birds…anything that will matter after you’ve moved in.

Use a good apartment search website. The ability to search by area makes life a lot easier, sothat capability, while not widely available, will shorten your time in front of the computer. Athubbuzz.com, you can search apartments by neighborhood (or by neighborhood type). Also,onhubbuzz.comyou can search for things you must have, for instance a pet-friendlyapartment, and you wont spend time looking at communities that just won’t work.

Prepare a list of apartment communities you’d like to look at. Plan your route and a checklistthat will help you determine which place is right for you. (Don’t have a list? Click here for anapartment search toolyou can print out and take with you. This apartment checklist will helpyou organize your search and prevent any big mistakes.)

Be realistic about your final decision. That fifth floor walkup may have an incredible view, butunless you’re fond of the Stairmaster at the gym, you’ll make all your decisions based on your five flights of exercise. So sleep on it before you sign the lease.

As a final note, if you’ve never read a lease, or don’t feel as though it’s one of your talents,have someone review it for you. Most apartment leases are boiler-plate, but you should knowwhat you’re signing.Good luck on your apartment search!ABOUT HUBBUZZ.COM:Hubbuzz.com is the only online apartment guide based on a neighborhood platform, matchingcustomer personality and lifestyle choices to neighborhood features and apartment amenities. Thegoal at hubbuzz.com is to provide users with useful, relevant and personalized search results. Users