When should someone go apartment hunting? Always go check out rental properties on the weekend, when everybody is at home. You're on the apartment hunt, looking for the best place for your money. How do...
You're on the apartment hunt, looking for the best place for your money. How do you know you are making the best choice possible? Our apartment locating expert, Jerry Yelvington, real estate agent for Avery Windsor Properties, says the time of day and week you go apartment shopping is extremely important in order to answer this question.
"Always go check out the property on the weekend, during the day, when everybody is at home. Look closely at the vehicles, and walk the common areas of the property to see what the residential situation might be as far as lighting goes. Check for safety and the noise level on the weekend," Yelvington says.
Yelvington says apartment shopping during the weekend is a great idea coupled with checking security issues on the premises. When trying to decide which apartment will be best for you, it's important to consider the amount of support each landlord is willing to provide for his or her tenants. In order to determine this, you should find out the way potential apartments handle maintenance as well as security problems.
Find out from an apartment representative whether or not they have any type of security guards on site. Ask if they re-key apartments once the old tenants move out. Maybe you'd feel more comfortable in an apartment close to the police department. A good friend of mine lives about a block away from the Arlington police department, and I feel so much safer when I leave there at night. On weekends, there's usually a cop car that cruises around to make sure everything's fine. It helps you sleep a little easier. Unfortunately, not every complex can all cram around the police department. This is why you must research the area to determine how safe it is. Just because an apartment looks "clean" doesn't mean that it is. Find out about the neighborhood crime statistics.
Besides checking on security, you will also want to find out the way your landlord handles repairs before they become a problem. You might be looking at an apartment with a great Jacuzzi-style tub, but if your landlord's never there to fix a bad draining problem; you might not ever get to enjoy it. You need to find a complex with a good maintenance system.
Find out how repair requests are handled. You can ask questions such as: "Is there a resident superintendent that handles all maintenance problems?", "Are maintenance hours restricted?" or "How long does it typically take for repair requests to be answered?" The answers should give you a little insight into the way that things are handled.
If you don't get much of an answer out of the complex representative, you might consider asking a resident. If the person you approach is irritated by the way the complex handles repair requests, he or she will be more than happy to vent.
Yelvington says, once you've discussed both maintenance and security issues with the representatives of potential apartments, you should be able to make a confident decision on which place you will decide to call home.
