Getting first apartment; advice anyone?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m going to college in the fall and I’m getting my very first ever apartment. Right now I’m living at home and am trying to search out apartments in a city that’s three-ish hours away. One of my high-school friends is going to room with me and we’re going to have a blast and eat s’mores ever night. (At least, these are my plans; the s’mores thing is still up in the air. :wink: )

Can anyone offer me any advice or give some experiences on the whole first apartment thing? Or give me some leads on some good secondhand shops in southwestern Wisconsin?

And can someone recommend some awesome pizza places in Milwaukee?

Thanks so much!

Sarah

2

Before you sign a lease…see if you can meet a few of your possible neighbors. Check out what other people who live there have to say about the units, the area, the management, etc.

Have fun and be safe! :smiley:

3

Make sure it’s in a safe area and at least introduce yourself to the neighbors. Above and below you, too.

Don’t play loud music after 10PM or before 9AM.

Read that rental agreement very carefully.

Sit down and talk to your friend about “apartment living rules.” You may be best friends at school, but s/he could be a complete slob or like to spread laundry on the floor (or vice versa). No, you don’t need stringent rules tacked onto the wall, but a talk about general expectations would be good.

4

Boy do I! Here is a list of things to look at/try:
[ul]
[li]Listen very carefully to ambient noise. If possible, look at places in the evening when others are apt to be home. This will give you at least a vague idea of how quiet you will need to be, how loud things will be and so forth. [/li][li]Look out of the windows of the rooms where you will be sleeping. You are looking for unfortunately placed lights that will shine in your face all night.[/li][li]If possible, bring a night-light with you. This is to test outlets. There should be a minimum of 1 per wall, and ideally they should all be grounded.[/li][li]Check to see where the phone jacks are located.[/li][li]Ditto on meeting the neighbors before you move in if you can. You may get a vibe that you do not like (or one that you do, for that matter).[/li][li]Open the windows, to make sure that they work. Also look for missing screens, or screens that have holes.[/li][li]Go over the lease with a fine toothed comb![/li][/ul]

5

From my experience, Rule #1 of apartments: Never have a friend for a roommate. You might get along great before, but once you are living together and find out all those “hidden” things you never knew, things can get a bit ugly. I roomed with one of my friends from high school during my early college years and if I hadn’t moved out after a few months, we would not be friends today. I didn’t know about her lack of hygeine, failure to EVER wash dishes, or the fact that she never picked up anything from the floor, be it dirty clothes or old food bags. So just be careful. Having a roommate is always as wonderful as it seems.

6

You can contact the Building Inspection department in the whatever your location is and ask if there have been any complaints concerning the maintenance or condition of the property. You can also contact the Better Business Bureau to find out about the landlord.

7

Make sure there are washer/dryer units available. Make sure you and your friend knows who is responsible for what bill (water, garbage, etc.). This will avoid arguments later.

When you move in, call your mom & tell her: “Hey mom!! Guess what I’m doing! Sittin on the couch in my undies, eating Oreos for dinner, and drinking milk straight out of the carton!” Then hang up. Trust me. Extremely satisfying.

8

The one thing that I regret about when I first moved out is that I moved into an apartment. It was nice to have my own place, but I missed out on a lot of experiences that come with living in the dorms. I didn’t get to meet as many people and there wasn’t the convenience of being right on campus.

I’d recommend checking out the dorms as well as apartments. If you do decide to go with an apartment, look around the area where most of the students live. Also don’t limit yourself to just searching on the internet. Take a weekend and go and look around the town.

In Knoxville there’s an area that is walking distance to school that is commonly known as the Fort. It has a bunch of old houses that have been sectioned off into apartments. Mainly college students live here. Check to see if where you’re moving to has a place like this and check out the old houses. Sometimes they are the best deals you can get.

Be weary of what the leasing agents tell you too. Look over your lease carefully. Show it to your parents and ask their opinions on it. Ask what it takes to break the lease. Some are easy to break, others have no way out. You may think that you won’t need to break the lease but you never know what’s going to happen. The last thing you want is a collection agency constantly calling.

There’s also some places that offer individual leases. Basically you rent a room in an apartment shared by 2-4 people with common areas that you share. Although the individual leasing is nice, talk to residents past and present. Find out how organised they are and how invasive they are. I lived in one of these places (worst living experience ever) and maintainence tended to show up rather unexpectedly, letting themselves in after two short knocks.

Also living with your best friend more than likely will not be what you expect. A friend of mine once said that the quickest way to ruining a friendship is to live together. I’ve found this to be quite true. Keep in mind that just because you live together doesn’t mean you’re going to be doing everything together. You will both need some space and time to yourself.

9

Check out the landlord if you can. Find out what you can from the people that live there. Last place I lived, the first landlord was fantastic. Responded to any and all problems within 24 hours, and followed up to make sure things were copasetic. Then he sold it to a landlady that refused to do anything for the place, and in the space of 18 months what was a nice set of appartments turned into a vermin-infested pit.

10

I’m sure other posters have said most of this already:

[ul]
[li]Look over the apartment carefully before you sign anything, and look at it twice is possible – look, ask questions, go away and think of everything you forgot, go back and look again[/li][li]Make sure every room has electrical outlets – make sure some are three-pronged.[/li][li]Make sure every room has windows.[/li][li]Don’t forget to look inside cabinets and closets, if you can, under shelves, etc.[/li][li]Carefully go over any existing damage with the landlord.[/li][li]If there are no laundry facilities, find out where the closest laundromat is.[/li][li]Find out where the closest grocery store is.[/li][li]Agree on who pays for which utilities. Get that in the lease.[/li][li]Know the state and municpal laws and bylaws governing landlord/tenant relations for where you’re renting. Some landlords will ask for a damage deposit, even when they can’t. [/li][/ul]

Good luck, and have fun! :slight_smile:

11

And if the answer to that is you pay for heat and the heat is electric don’t sign that lease (unless you’re independently wealthy). Your electric bill will quadruple in colder months.

(only big blunder I can recall about my first apartment)

12

Smell.

When you “look” at a place, notice how it smells. If you smell a lot of “air fresheners”, then they’ve got something to conceal from you. If you smell mustiness, expect problems with water and mold.

13

A few tips from my time spent living in apartments:

[ul]
[li]Never assume that linoleum is impervious to fire.[/li][li]When the toilet is oozing blood, the shower curtain keeps wrapping itself around your neck, items mysteriously float through the air and attempt to strike you, and the lights keep going on and off, move.[/li][li]Cultivate the friendship of anyone named “Opal.”[/li][li]Never overinflate your “special friend.” If you do, be sure to have a large supply of bandages and some Bactine handy.[/li][li]Stay away from all the quiet, friendly, non-threatening neighbors. They’re always the ones who go on killing sprees later, and if you’re still alive, you’ll have to tell the media that he or she always “seemed so quiet, friendly and non-threatening.”[/li][li]Keep all cabinet doors closed at all times; otherwise, the snake could sneak in there and you’ll never find him. At least, not until your date is reaching for a plate four days later. Grabbing a snake instead of a plate really ruins the mood. [/li][/ul]

If I think of any others, I’ll post them. Until then, you’d do well to listen to everyone else in this thread, because they’re bound to have better advice than me.

14

[ul]
[li]It’s cheap (compared to replacing all your stuff)[/li][li]You have more stuff than you think, value-wise[/li][li]Your landlord’s insurance does not cover your stuff[/li][li]You don’t have just one roommate - you have <x> number of people living in the same structure as you. You have no idea what insane, stupid, potentially damaging thing they may decide to do next.[/li][li]It’s cheap[/li][/ul]

15

All good advice. As far as the neighbors go, just check out the parking lot. A lot of heaps on blocks? Forget it. Also, check for trash, maintenance, etc.

This is good for a quick drive-through test.

16

I used aptratings.net when I moved to Knoxville to help me locate a place - I was living in Atlanta at the time and couldn’t make the trips I needed to look at every place I thought sounded vaguely interesting.

Find apartments you’re interested in on other sites, then check out aptratings to see how they check out. I ended up rescinding one deposit because of something I found after making the trip for the deposit. Then I went with this one because of what the ratings said - I hadn’t even planned to look at it, and I love where I live now.
Think about how far the apartments you look at are from campus - if it takes you 30 minutes to drive to campus, you’ll never be able to roll out of bed 10 minutes before class and still make it.

Like someone else said, I’d consider dorms, at least for your first year. You can meet a lot of people that way, and it’s good, even if the communal living aspect isn’t always great.

17

Once you’re more or less settled in, take pictures of anything that might be valuable (computer, TV, stereo, jewelery, etc). What I did was keep a copy of the pictures and I gave a copy to my mom to keep. Most of the pictures were in context, and it was clear that these items were all inside the apartment. That way, if you have the misfortune to lose items due to theft or fire etc, then it makes it that much easier to show the police/insurance companies what you lost and how much it was, etc.

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS AS A TENANT!!! Contact your college housing office about renter’s rights, or your state department that is in charge of such things. If you have insects in the apartment - is that your responisbility, or your landlords? What about maintenance or distribution of keys? Can you change the locks if you want to? Can you withold rent if there is a problem with the landlord (you cannot in Ontario)? Under what conditions can you break the lease, or under which conditions can you be evicted? PLAN FOR THE WORST, and make sure you know what your rights are. I had a problem landlord two years ago (in a house shared by students) and a problem roommate last year (who left voluntarily). Things can go wrong, and it is quite easy to make things worse inadvertantly.

I also agree with going over any and all damage in the apartment you take. You might not mind the dent in the wall now, but if your landlord decides to charge you for it when you leave, you will mind! If you have a car, or have friends who may visit with cars, find out about available parking. Can they park on the street during certain hours? Are there visitor spots, etc.

Cover the ground rules with your housemate. Let them know early on what your standards are regarding garbage pile-up, dishes, cleaning the apartment, etc. Divide up your chores and settle on a reasonable schedule and level of cleanliness. ESTABLISH GUEST RULES and do not break them yourself. One problem with our problem housemate was that his girlfriend was over 24/7, and she used our phone (including long-distance calls), TV, internet, sometimes food etc without paying, while he owed us nearly 300$ in utilities. While at first we didnt mind her, it quickly became stressful because this apartment was NOT made for 4 adults to be living together, especially when one was basically free-loading.

I’m sure there’s a lot more, but those are the things I can think of right now.

Before this scares you completely, let me just add that I love living in an apartment, even with all the troubles we;ve had. It gives you a great sense of freedom and responsibility, and it can be a wonderful experience, even the first time around. As I said, plan for the worst, because bad things CAN happen, but there is also a good chance that they won’t.

Good luck finding a place, and I hope things work out well with your roommate!

18

What mdf said. Get insurance. Also, a window view of your car is nice for security reason.

19

I wanted to live in dorms; I couldn’t. UW-M is a big commuter school, and their dorms aren’t sufficient for the number of kids going there. So, when I got my housing application, three or four days later I got a letter saying all contracts had been filled for the year. The waiting is waaaaay over 2000 people right now. Very crazy.

Maureen, I’ll have to try that. If I told my mom I was eating Oreos for dinner, she’d freak. I’m a diabetic and she’s convinced that within three months of leaving home, I’m going to end up in the hospital. :stuck_out_tongue: The fact that I’ve been independently managing myself for the past six years means nothing to her, even though she’s completely out of the loop when it comes to my current routine. But moms . . . eh. That’s the way they are.

UW-M has an awesome off-campus housing page on their website. I’m looking there. Some of the suggestions on there are the same as the ones here, but the renter’s insurance thing wasn’t.

Thanks to all this great advice, I feel more prepared. Thank you so much, guys! The SDMB has never let me down before and hope it doesn’t quite any time soon. It’s possibly the greatest collection of quasi-sane ( :slight_smile: )people I’ve ever encountered, outside of my family.

Now my only worry is being acosted by some creepy stalker guy, but I’ll definitely take advantage of the Night Owl Campus Escort Service thing. If only my favorite teacher hadn’t grown up in New York and told me all sorts of scary stories when I told him I was going to UW-M. Nice guy, but he worries incessantly!

Sarah

20

Actually, if you are a full time student, chances are you are covered under your parent’s home owner’s policy up to 10% of that policy, (i.e. if the parents carry $300,000 in insurance, kid’s apartment will be covered up to $30,000). So, before you buy your own policy, at least check and see if you are allready covered.