Before you commit to a lease, consider this advice from experts and experienced tenants.
Ask whether the landlord or apartment manager lives in the complex before signing on the dotted line.
No need for rental panic. If you sign a lease for an apartment or house, you will probably come out of the experience just fine. After all, the landlord-tenant model has generally worked well for centuries. In fact, 43 million U.S. households live in rented properties, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.
But problems do crop up, whether you're a novice or an experienced tenant. Here are a few issues to consider and steps to take before signing a lease.
Don't rush. Maggie Graham, a marketing manager for Promet Source, a Web application development company in Chicago, came to this conclusion after a lot of trial and error. "Give yourself enough time so that you won't make a decision out of desperation. If you're desperate, you'll overlook minor things like having enough windows," Graham says.
Graham is also an actor who has worked with numerous theater troupes over the years, performing and renting in Cincinnati, rural Indiana and Chicago. "I've lived in about nine places in 10 years," she says.
She once rented a $600 apartment in Chicago. The price was incredible, but there was only one skylight window and the roof was angled. Graham, who is just over 6 feet tall, realized too late: "I couldn't fit in the place."
The front door lock was also broken. "Once, a creepy dude followed me home, and I had to pretend to unlock and lock it," she says.
Graham has a wealth of advice for renters, like flushing the toilet and making sure it works during the walk-through. "Looking to skimp on location? Visit the neighborhood at night," Graham says.
But above all, take your time and don't let anyone pressure you into signing a lease. "If you're renting through an apartment-finding company, they will pressure you that this is going to go fast – lies, all lies," Graham says.
Read the fine print.
This is another reason not to rush. Looking over the details takes time, but choosing a place to live is a big decision. Much of the fine print will be boring legalese, but some details you may find quite alarming.
"A few years back, I made a verbal commitment for a year lease and thought that was on the contract, but I didn't double-check the year," says Courtenay Sprunger, who owns Big Sky Public Relations in Kalispell, Montana. "The landlord," she adds, "made it for two years, and he held us to that contract."
Another thing to check is how much it costs to break your lease. Nitin Shingate, CEO and co-founder of RentalRoost.com, a startup that specializes in helping people find rentals based on their lifestyle, says when he moved from Los Angeles to San Francisco, he didn’t realize his lease stipulated that if he moved out early, he would have to pay three months of rent. That turned out to be $9,000.
"Hey, this was L.A.," Shingate says. He adds, "Most people don't pay attention to the rules about breaking the lease, but it's really a critical question you should be asking."
Get everything in writing. Sometimes the lease isn’t detailed enough, which could spell trouble if expectations aren't discussed and spelled out beforehand.
If you do discuss expectations with a prospective landlord, "get all promises in writing," says Melisa Alaba, a speaker and life coach based in Bolingbrook, Illinois. "I have been duped by landlords stating they were going to take care of an issue after I moved in, and then later forgetting about it or fixing the issue months later."
One reason a lease may not be detailed is that not every rental is a 10-story apartment building owned by a corporation with a live-in building manager. You might be renting from a "reluctant landlord," says Vikram Raghavan, another co-founder of RentalRoost.com. "You know, the person who moves to another state and is stuck with a property he can't sell."
Article By Geoff Williams
But problems do crop up, whether you're a novice or an experienced tenant. Here are a few issues to consider and steps to take before signing a lease.
Don't rush. Maggie Graham, a marketing manager for Promet Source, a Web application development company in Chicago, came to this conclusion after a lot of trial and error. "Give yourself enough time so that you won't make a decision out of desperation. If you're desperate, you'll overlook minor things like having enough windows," Graham says.
Graham is also an actor who has worked with numerous theater troupes over the years, performing and renting in Cincinnati, rural Indiana and Chicago. "I've lived in about nine places in 10 years," she says.
She once rented a $600 apartment in Chicago. The price was incredible, but there was only one skylight window and the roof was angled. Graham, who is just over 6 feet tall, realized too late: "I couldn't fit in the place."
The front door lock was also broken. "Once, a creepy dude followed me home, and I had to pretend to unlock and lock it," she says.
Graham has a wealth of advice for renters, like flushing the toilet and making sure it works during the walk-through. "Looking to skimp on location? Visit the neighborhood at night," Graham says.
But above all, take your time and don't let anyone pressure you into signing a lease. "If you're renting through an apartment-finding company, they will pressure you that this is going to go fast – lies, all lies," Graham says.
Read the fine print.
This is another reason not to rush. Looking over the details takes time, but choosing a place to live is a big decision. Much of the fine print will be boring legalese, but some details you may find quite alarming.
"A few years back, I made a verbal commitment for a year lease and thought that was on the contract, but I didn't double-check the year," says Courtenay Sprunger, who owns Big Sky Public Relations in Kalispell, Montana. "The landlord," she adds, "made it for two years, and he held us to that contract."
Another thing to check is how much it costs to break your lease. Nitin Shingate, CEO and co-founder of RentalRoost.com, a startup that specializes in helping people find rentals based on their lifestyle, says when he moved from Los Angeles to San Francisco, he didn’t realize his lease stipulated that if he moved out early, he would have to pay three months of rent. That turned out to be $9,000.
"Hey, this was L.A.," Shingate says. He adds, "Most people don't pay attention to the rules about breaking the lease, but it's really a critical question you should be asking."
Get everything in writing. Sometimes the lease isn’t detailed enough, which could spell trouble if expectations aren't discussed and spelled out beforehand.
If you do discuss expectations with a prospective landlord, "get all promises in writing," says Melisa Alaba, a speaker and life coach based in Bolingbrook, Illinois. "I have been duped by landlords stating they were going to take care of an issue after I moved in, and then later forgetting about it or fixing the issue months later."
One reason a lease may not be detailed is that not every rental is a 10-story apartment building owned by a corporation with a live-in building manager. You might be renting from a "reluctant landlord," says Vikram Raghavan, another co-founder of RentalRoost.com. "You know, the person who moves to another state and is stuck with a property he can't sell."
Article By Geoff Williams
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