Renting 101: The Beginners Guide To Renting

Welcome to Renting 101

If you are a first time renter, then this is your post! In a generation where we are surrounded by crippling amounts of student loan debt, minimum wage, and no real understanding for credit and how it effects your life, its no wonder why Millennial's and Gen Z generations are still living at home with their parents!

 When you are ready for independence, there are a few things that I would suggest as being helpful. These are totally things that I wish that someone had told me before my fiance and I rented our first apartment. The world of renting can be so over whelming, it's your first taste of being independent and doing the things the way you truly want to do them.


10 Things To Consider When Renting Your First Apartment

1. Do not rent above your means.

•  Before you even start looking for an apartment, you should get a good understanding of what your budget will look like. After all of your independent bills like cell phone, car payment, car insurance, student loan payments, how much can you afford after this? 

2. Figure out what is important to you in your home you are living in.

• Is it important for you to have off street parking? Do you need laundry in the home? Do you want to be closer to work or activities? These are all questions that you should ask. If you take mass transit to get to work being 10 miles from a nearest bus stop or train station isn't going to be the best thing for you. It is actually going to cause more headache than anything. 

3. Get Renters Insurance

• It is beyond important to have renters insurance! Let me explain it to you this way, if there is a fire in the home that you are renting, your landlord will have coverage for the building that you are living in, the landlord will replace the building no problem, because they have insurance for it. There will be no coverage for the items inside of the home that you find valuable... That TV you bought, nope that's not going to be replaced. All of the cloths that you have, well you will just have to replace all of it out of pocket. If you have insurance, all of these things will be covered and you will be able to replace it. 

4. Have enough money to pay the first month, last month and a security deposit. 

• Having enough money to pay for what the landlord is requiring is extremely important. You don't want to have to ask if the Landlord will work with you on it. What type of message does this send your landlord? This about if it was you? how would you feel? I could tell you right now that it would make me think that you were always going to have issues making your rent payments on time. 

5. Dress the way you want to be seen and be prompt when looking at a potential property

• Always dress well when meeting someone for the first time. This is an informal interview at its finest. Someone is judging you based on how you look. Yes, I know it sucks to hear that, but it is beyond true. A landlord would not want to rent to someone who is late and not put together. If you showed up and you smelled funny it would tell a landlord that this is how you want to live... Eww. This is an interview, they are seeing you for what and how you show up. Put on a good impression. 

6. Interview the landlord also! 

• Ok, this one is strange, but it is so important. Make sure you are asking questions about the Landlord and their process. You want to be in a location with a landlord that is can meet your needs as a tenant. Do they live close if things break? Are pets allowed? Is there an extra fee for pets? What type of heat is it? Ask questions!! 

7. Fill out the application, and send it back ASAP. 

• Most landlords work on a the applications as they come into them. They are going to gather your info, and send you the application. whenever you submit the application back and have all the necessary things that they are looking for with it, like proof of income will get the apartment. Being prompt and sending back all of the applicable information is going to be key to beating out the competition to get the apartment you want. 

8. Keep enough money to cover your bills for 1-2 months in case you lose your source of income 

• No one ever told me to so this, and I wish they had. It would have made things a whole lot easier when my Fiance lost his job and he was the breadwinner. I struggled to make ends meet. We depended on his income. We never had a nest to protect us. If someone had told me that I should have 1-2 months worth of income put aside just in case I would have been so much easier. 

9. READ YOUR LEASE

• There are things in your lease that I am sure you didn't know was in there. Trust me...Take the time, read the lease. Take notice that you will have to fix things under a certain amount, do you have a late fee? There are things in this lease that you need to know about. A lease is a contract. Your signing a contract and you should know what is in it. 

10. Make your rent payment on time.

• It is beyond important to pay your rent on time. When you decide to move from this apartment to another one you will need a landlord reference. What do you want your old landlord to tell your new landlord? Not that  you didn't pay your rent on time.. that's for sure.

I'm sure that I could add like 100 more things to this list, but for right now I am going to leave it at this