The Single Girl’s Guide to Apartment Hunting

It’s come time for you to look for an apartment on your own. Whether you’ve been living at home, living with roommates, or living with a significant other, you have found yourself on the apartment hunt. I’ve had a bit of an interesting experience with apartment hunting thus far, so it’s taken me almost 26 years to learn the lessons I’m sharing with you now.

1. The internet is a bunch of lies. I know this one kind of seems like a joke, but I’m serious. The first apartment I went to this round had a $70 price difference from where I saw online to what they told me in person.
2. Don’t trust the pictures. Again, this is an obvious one, but one that needs repeating. One “townhouse” I found online was quite misleading when we got there in person. We didn’t even make it out of the car.
3. Budget ahead of time. Know what you can and cannot spend beforehand.
4. Don’t let anyone force you to sign anything. Yes, apartments may run specials if you sign at a particular time, but agents are also helpful and may be willing to work something out with you.
5. Make appointments. Now, most places I went did not require appointments. However, they can me helpful! They’ll keep you on schedule, and potentially give you an easy out if someone is trying to force you to do something.
6. Ask questions and know what you want. Every place asked me “What is it that you know you want in an apartment?” Umm…walls, a roof, a nice kitchen…Go deeper than that. Do you need to live on a particular floor? Do you require a washer/dryer hookup? Also, ask the leasing agent a lot of questions. What do they do to the apartments between tenants? Can you paint? Do they have community events?

When I found my apartment (moving in at the end of next month!!), I actually went back the next day to measure walls. Coming up with a game plan for your furniture before you move in is also key. For me, it actually ended up that I needed to sell a couple of items (that I don’t really need) to make things fit!

At the end of the day, just take your time. You need to feel comfortable in your new space. Happy apartment hunting!