A few weeks ago, my friend Lanise was talking about me in the dorm. “Lena’s a real adult,” she said, referring to the fact that I paid many of my own bills (including tuition! yikes!), lived in an apartment on my own when not at Kenyon, knew vague details about car maintenance, and could kick people out of Wiggin Street Coffee at 10 PM when I was the Manager on Duty. I was flattered by what she said. In fact, it inspired me to start this series. I want you all to know that when the time comes, you can do this. You can be a “real adult.” You probably already are.
Last week, we covered taxes (and car maintenance the week before). This week’s topic is apartments. Apartments are by far one of the most rewarding aspects of living alone. They provide both excitement and alone time (my favorite kind of time), and they make you a part of a town or city instead of a couch-surfer. I love apartments, even though renting them has often baffled and sometimes traumatized me. But I’ll get to that later.
But how do I find an apartment, Lena?
There are a few ways to find an apartment. If you’re staying somewhere for more than six months, you can rent from a complex. Apartment complexes will generally not lease anything less than six months; that’s basically the way they can guarantee to make a profit. If you know the area, you can drive around and simply look for them. You can also ask locals where they have lived in the city. Google maps actually provides a decent list, as well as apartmentfinder. You can also sign up for a service that sends you email notifications about apartments on Trulia. Trulia is great; it sends me apartments that are way out of my price range and I get to ogle at them while I lie in bed.
Look at reviews for any place you’re thinking of renting. You don’t want to get stuck in a dangerous neighborhood. (Unless it’s a last resort and you’re street savvy. If you’re wondering if you’re street savvy, you probably aren’t). You also don’t want to get stuck in a place that ignores renters’ complaints about mold on the walls or failing appliances. You DO want to find a cheap place within walking distance of ice cream and parks. Read the reviews.
With shorter-term leases, you have two options: a month-to-month lease or a sublet. A month-to-month lease requires less paperwork and confusion; you generally rent directly from a person. Often, it works similarly to Airbnb: people often rent a room of their house or a furnished basement to make some extra cash. The other option is subletting: this means someone signed a year long lease but will be away for a few months, which often happens to college students. Luckily, college students are broke and could potentially charge pretty cheap rates. Sometimes, they want your whole bank account (I’m looking at you, Vanderbilt grad students).
That said, I think the best way to find sublets and short-term leases is on college classifieds. I found my current month-to-month lease on the Vanderbilt Classifieds. If you’re brave and want to sublet, you can try Craigslist. However, use caution on Craigslist. I’ve bought some cool shelves on there, but I’m not sure about leases. I wouldn’t recommend it unless the person offers to meet you at a public place to talk, and you can verify that they’re not crazy or a robot out to collect social security numbers.
By the way, don’t give money to people online. Ask to talk to someone on the phone. Ask to add someone on Facebook, or ask about what they do in town (do they go to college? are they working at a local bar?), and then verify it. I just talked to my landlady on the phone, and I could tell that she’s a sweet, southern mom. The more you know about a person, the better you’ll feel.
OK, so I found an apartment, but they’re asking me for a ton of money for things like water, deposits, application fees, and first and last month’s rent! Is this normal? What do I do?
Yep, that’s normal. Depending on the apartment, you should expect to pay for heating, electricity, water, a pet fee (if they allow pets and you have one), first and last month’s rent, a security deposit, and more. All those fun maintenance costs can add up. Cheap apartments sometimes won’t include them to look cheaper. It’s totally OK to ask the landlord to help you estimate their cost. It’s also completely acceptable to ask your landlord how to set them up. They should give you instructional materials about some of them. As much as it feels like cutting off a limb to pay this to a stranger up front, some of this money actually comes back to you, as long as you don’t break the lease.
Also, some apartments might ask for you to prove a certain income threshold in order to rent from them. You can always ask your parents to cosign if this is a problem, even if you’re planning on paying for the place yourself. It’s actually good for both of your credit, anyway.
Lena, what happened to you and your first landlady? Didn’t she make you clean her already immaculate kitchen with a wet wipe while she screamed at you and you cried?
Here is the single most important bit of rental advice: watch out for crazy. If you get a bad vibe from someone, get out.
I don’t talk about my first apartment in Nashville much, but I did not watch out for crazy. The first time the landlady said something weird and controlling in an email, I hadn’t even signed the lease yet. I brushed it off. When she raised the price with no notice, I felt weird but didn’t know what to do. Finally, when she made me clean imaginary crumbs off her counter while screaming about how much of a slob I was, I started realizing that I had the option to stand up for myself. I signed my 30 days notice (which you have to give on a lease, by the way), and started looking for a new place for the next month.
Unfortunately, we live in a world full of sharks. Know your rights.
Finally, and I know this is a bummer, but read your lease. If you don’t take any of the other advice from me and sign a lease from a stranger on Craigslist in the heart of nowhere with an apartment full of cockroaches, read your lease. You’re not going to want to read it; it’s going to be long and in small print and look like the iTunes Terms and Conditions (seriously, even 13-year-old me didn’t read that when I purchased my first Fergie music video on my mom’s credit card). But I’m serious. Read it all the way through, out loud. Do not feel pressure by the rental agency to sign it right after you skim it. Ask questions. Know when to give notice (sometimes 30 days before your lease ends, sometimes 60), or your landlord could charge you for extra months or you could lose your security deposit. Ask questions if you don’t understand something.
Apartments are kind of amazing. The first time I cooked food on the stove in the kitchen of my second apartment, I felt a strange elation, as if I had suddenly become an actual person. I hope you have that feeling too, whether you’re renting for a summer or after graduation or during your time abroad. Being a real adult doesn’t feel scary most of the time. It usually just feels rewarding.
Image Credit: Lena Mazel