With how expensive owning a house continues to be, many people have found renting an apartment to be an alternative solution in order to have a place to stay without spending lots of money. At the very least, a tenant would only need to pay a month's worth of rent, though, depending on the homeowner, the tenant may be required to pay a few months of rent in advance. Still, for a person with not a ton of disposable income, renting a house may still be a huge ordeal, and even if they have the money, there are still lots of things to consider, so that the tenant can live comfortably in the apartment they rented. Right now, I am not looking for an apartment to rent, but I have been thinking of renting a few years back due to how far my home is from my workplace. Eventually, I just got used to it and dropped the idea, but if I were to look for an apartment, it would have to pass certain criteria that I want to share. But, before that, let me first talk a little about how renting works in my area.
There are different types of apartments in my area, from one-bedroom to micro apartments. But the one that has become more common recently is the studio-type apartment. It has a kitchen and a bathroom, but other than that, there are no other divisions in the house, and I can understand why homeowners prefer this type of apartment. Without the divisions, it would be up to the tenant how they want to partition the house, making it flexible whether the tenant is a single person or a large family, and also reduces the areas that they need to repair. As for the payment, the cheapest I can find was around 50$, with the homeowner usually asks for 3 months' worth of rent to make sure that the tenant has the ability to pay or has paid in advance in case they are low on cash, but in case the tenant decides to leave the apartment, they could get back the advanced payment. Most of the apartments have their own water and electric meter, so the tenants can monitor their consumption, but when it comes to bills, the homeowner will collect the payment from the tenants to make sure it goes before the bill's due date.
Now, when it comes to the apartment, the first thing that I am looking for is the location. Its location should be close to my place of work, as well as have easy access to the market, restaurants, malls, and hospitals. Since I do not drive, it would also be nice if the location has good public transportation, and I would prefer it to be on an elevated place to avoid flooding. As for parents, the apartment being close to school is a must. Another thing I considered when looking for an apartment was its safety, so it would be good if the apartment were located in an area with a low crime rate, and it would be better if the area it's in is well-lit at night. It would be a bonus if it's close to the Police station. Sanitation is also an important consideration when looking for a place, and what I mean by this is that there should be frequent trash collection within the area.
Above, I talked about how each apartment has its own water and electricity lines, but with how vital the internet is, I would like the homeowner to at least give me permission to apply for an internet line, if they can't provide it, and the internet in the area should be at a decent speed. Since I am a pet owner, I won't rent an apartment unless it allows pets in the apartment, as long as I prove to be a good pet owner, but if they find me to be negligent, they are free to kick me out anytime.
While it has nothing to do with the apartment itself, the type of neighbors can sometimes discourage a person from renting the place. As for me, I don't really mind if they get a little loud as long as they mind their own business and know when to tone down in consideration of the other people around them. Finally, an apartment should be affordable enough that even a minimum wage earner can rent it. It's not to devalue the apartment, but to at least give people the human decency to live a comfortable life even when they have the least paying jobs.
At the end of the day, looking for an apartment that has all the criteria that I mentioned above is not that easy. Sometimes we find an apartment that has a good and safe location, but we find that the neighbors are rowdy, or that we find a cheap apartment, but it doesn't have a steady supply of water. Because of that, we have to weigh the pros and cons of the apartments and choose which one suits our needs the most.
Thank you for reading my post, and see you in the next one!
