It’s finally time to move! Maybe you’re moving out of your parents’ house for the first time, or maybe you’re an old hand at moving. Either way, while this can be an exciting experience, it can also potentially be a lasting nightmare if you choose a bad apartment.
Before beginning your search, take a deep breath and be sure that you have a plan to find the ideal one. Here are a few tips.
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Believe it or not, this can be a big deal. Look for a place that has a separate mailbox for each apartment as well as apartment package lockers for when you receive packages. In some cities, where larger homes have been broken up into apartments, you may end up sharing a community mailbox, which means mail can go missing, and packages left on porches with no lockers can also easily go missing.
Commute
It doesn’t make much difference how you decorate your amazing apartment if you end up sitting in an hour and a half commute every day just so that you can get there to enjoy it. When you search for an apartment, be sure that you map out any routes you might take between the apartment and your job or school.
Begin your search by setting a maximum time that you’re willing to travel each day. If the ideal apartments near Oklahoma City are just slightly out of that travel time, you might want to test out your possible commute before putting down your deposit.
Roommates
Many of the less desirable aspects of apartments might be hidden, replaced, or repaired in some way, shape, or form. That said, you can’t do this with roommates. The quality of life you have in your home will be directly impacted by your quality of relationship with any roommates, so if living alone isn’t an option, be sure that you choose any roommates very carefully. Compare their socializing, cleaning, and sleeping habits to yours before you decide whether or not they’ll be a good choice.
Utilities
Searching all over to find the ideal apartment that falls into your budget only to then find out that you’ll be spending way too much on utilities each month can be a horrible feeling. When you’re doing your calculations to find out what’s affordable, don’t neglect to include extraneous monthly expenses such as the internet, electricity, and heat.
If these things aren’t already included in your rent, ask current tenants or the landlord approximate costs for them and how much those costs can vary throughout the year.
Air and Heat
No matter where they might be, older apartments all tend to have the same issue which is why having a good property manager is so important. Unit can become a sauna in the warmer months and freezers in the colder ones. Find out if your prospective building has central heat and air or if you’ll have to provide your sources of heat and cool air yourself.
There are many more things that you’ll need to take into account when it comes to finding the ideal apartment. Some of these include things like whether or not you get along with the landlord, if the neighborhood is good or bad, whether there’s adequate parking near enough, what the laundry situation is, and more. However, the ones you’ve read about here today, along with the ones just mentioned, should be enough for you to begin your search with.
Remember that finding an apartment has to do with so much more than simply whether or not it happens to fall within your price range. You have to live there – and live with your decision for a minimum of six months, depending on your lease.