{"id":570,"date":"2018-07-22T21:31:17","date_gmt":"2018-07-22T21:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/realestate\/?p=570"},"modified":"2018-08-31T16:48:33","modified_gmt":"2018-08-31T16:48:33","slug":"renting101-checklist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/realestate\/renting101-checklist\/","title":{"rendered":"Renting 101: Apartment Viewing Checklist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So you have decided to move out and now you&#8217;re looking for an apartment. Where do you start? What do you look for? How will you know if it&#8217;s the right apartment for you? The best tip is to always do a full walk through of your potential new apartment before signing any papers and moving in.<\/p>\n<p>Here are checklists of questions that can be a good resource to helping you find your perfect apartment.<\/p>\n<h1>Before the Viewing &#8211; Questions to ask the potential landlord<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li>How many bedrooms are in the apartment?<\/li>\n<li>How much is rent?<\/li>\n<li>When is the apartment available? When do the previous tenants move out?<\/li>\n<li>Are utilities included in the rental cost, if not, how much will they be per month?<\/li>\n<li>Are there laundry facilities?<\/li>\n<li>Is there parking included in the rental fee?<\/li>\n<li>Do you have any rules about pets? Smoking? Guests?<\/li>\n<li>Where is the closest public transportation located?<\/li>\n<li>Why did the person move out?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1>During the Viewing &#8211; Items to check<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li>Do you need to set up service for the power? Cable? Hydro? Internet?<\/li>\n<li>Is there air conditioning and\/or central heat?<\/li>\n<li>Are the laundry facilities pay or free use?<\/li>\n<li>Are you sharing a space with other people? Are the other people there to meet?<\/li>\n<li>Are there working smoke detectors?<\/li>\n<li>Is there a fire extinguisher in the apartment?Are there enough electrical outlets in each room?<\/li>\n<li>How many telephone jacks are in the apartment and where are they located?<\/li>\n<li>Is there cable television hook-up?<\/li>\n<li>Is the hot water working?<\/li>\n<li>Do the door locks work?<\/li>\n<li>Do the windows have working locks and is it easy to open and close?<\/li>\n<li>Do the appliances (oven\/stove\/fridge) function properly?<\/li>\n<li>Are there major cracks in the ceilings or walls?<\/li>\n<li>Who pays for rental damages?<\/li>\n<li>Is there a damage deposit, what is considered damages?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1>Things to Consider<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li>Is the apartment close to work or school?<\/li>\n<li>If sharing, are you living with people you would want to live with?<\/li>\n<li>Do you need to pay first and last, or damage deposits &#8211; check with your local rules to see which a landlord can charge in your area<\/li>\n<li>Do any additional expenses from this unit be accommodated for in your budget?<\/li>\n<li>Does it meet your needs for laundry? Parking? Internet? Guests?<\/li>\n<li>How long is the lease agreement?<\/li>\n<li>At what point in the lease agreement can the landlord increase the rent?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Take your time while you&#8217;re inspecting your potential apartment! Don&#8217;t rush and be thorough. You want to make sure that you choose a place you can picture yourself living in happily.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So you have decided to move out and now you&#8217;re looking for an apartment. Where do you start? What do you look for? How will you know if it&#8217;s the right apartment for you? The best tip is to always do a full walk through of your potential new apartment before signing any papers and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":766,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[54,80,82,83,81],"class_list":["post-570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-renting","tag-rankmyagent-guides","tag-rental-viewing-checklist","tag-things-to-consider-when-renting","tag-viewing-a-rental","tag-what-to-look-for-in-a-rental"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/realestate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/realestate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/realestate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/realestate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/realestate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/realestate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":806,"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/realestate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570\/revisions\/806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/realestate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/realestate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/realestate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rankmyagent.com\/realestate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}