Letter To My Younger Self About Renting An Apartment
HA!
I laugh because I’m going to hit on some of the age-old “renting vs owning” debates, with these lessons learned, but I won’t say which is better. Although you can probably tell from my comments throughout my letter. There are some things I wish I’d known, ideas I learned from renting experts like RENTCafé, and things I learned the hard way.
What I Would Tell My Younger Self About Renting
Dear Younger Self,
I’m 31 and still have never “owned” a home, but I have rented the past 5 years as an adult and 3 years before that in college, learning A LOT! Please make better choices than I/You did.
1. Always ask if there is a better price on rent. Many times there are deal or specials going on in an apartment complex that the leasing team doesn’t necessarily offer up front. However, a simple question of “can you do better?” will produce AMAZING results. I’ve received some amazing deals on apartments just because I asked that one simple question.
Also never quit asking that question, even when renewing your lease ask if they can do better. Sometimes, just sometimes they’ll come back with “I went to ask my manager and we can lower your rent for $100”. It never hurts to ask.
2. Maintenance is included in your rent, don’t hesitate to ask for needed repairs. I used to be so nervous about submitting maintenance requests not wanting to be a problem tenant. Even the small things like a slow leaking drain. I would go to the store to buy Draino to fix the drain myself. However, that’s not your responsibility. Maintenance is there to supply their own Draino to fix their building, it’s not your responsibility. Take advantage of your maintenance team for all those concerns. When in doubt, just ask your maintenance team about something and 9 out of 10 times, they’ll fix it.
3. When looking for Apartments, Studio Apartments are pretty great. To save you a couple hundred dollars, absolutely go for a studio apartment. They save you money, easy to clean and force you to assess what’s important enough to keep and throw away.
4. Location is everything. Think about those Uber receipts, where will you go every weekend and what personality type are you. If you’re a social person, you will absolutely hate living in the suburbs with a cheaper apartment. It’ll take you forever to get downtown to meet people and you’ll likely cancel plans to just stay home and avoid traveling. The extra money is worth it to live where you want to be.
5. Higher views are nice, but they don’t matter. Lots of apartment complexes make you pay extra the higher your apartment is. So someone on the 8th floor will pay more than someone on the 3rd floor. It’s not worth it, lots of times your blinds will be closed to block the sunlight glare on the tv. A better view only matters 5% of the time you live in an apartment.
6. It’s OK you don’t remember your Leasing Agents name, they’ll be gone in 6 months. Every time I apartment shopped, I created a great relationship with the Leasing Agent for the building. However, every time I did, 6 months later someone new would replace them. All that goodwill built up is instantly gone. The turnover rate for these positions is incredibly high.
7. Roommates are amazing, but living on your own is way better. I spent 3 years living with 2 amazing roommates (one of them was Adam). It was great to come home every day and chat with each other about our day and hang out. So I thought about living by myself would be lonely, it wasn’t. Living on your own is awesome! Once you live on your own, you’ll never go back! Lol
8. Constantly call your utilities to ask for better deals, there usually are. Once a year I call Xfinity for my internet and ask for a better deal and every year they find me one. Again it never hurts to ask.
9. You’re not likely to get your entire deposit back no matter how well you clean. I’ve been in apartments where I kept it spotless and even my parents helped clean when I moved out. However, no matter how well you clean, some apartment inspector will ding you for the smallest things and keep all or part of your deposit. While it’s not worth the effort of cleaning, you should still do it. Just know your deposit is likely gone.
10. Neighbors suck, so invest in earplugs, eye masks, and moderately noised fan. No matter where you go, you’ll have neighbors that every once in a while play music too loud or launch laser lights into your apartment as an afterthought (it happens). Unless this happens all the time, a set of earbuds, eye mask, and a fan to help drown out the noise are essential and help you avoid confrontations while your neighbors are drunk. It’s much better to speak with them in the morning.
Please make good choices,
Andrew
Wallet Squirrel is a personal finance blog by best friends Andrew & Adam on how money works, building side-hustles, and the benefits of cleverly investing the profits. Featured on MSN Money, AOL Finance, and more!
I never entertained the thought when I moved to Florida back in 1999 with my former best friend that renting doesn’t contribute to ownership. I can rent the same place for 30 to 40 years and still not own it. And if I don’t pay, I get evicted. Even after all those years. This is why today I value credit and keeping a good credit score.
And another tid bit food for thought is before you pay your rent, put away @ least $50 to $100 for PPC advertising on Bing ads by Microsoft, Google AdWords, and explore PPC services that’ll do your PPC ads for you. This way, you can increase your ROI while paying rent and make your money back faster. As your sales increase from PPC ads,it’ll be more like you’re living in your apartment for free. Just a thought. 🙂
lol I love the idea in concept, are you doing this to pay for your rent/mortgage?
-Andrew
I’m improvising now after approval for a home mortgage. Looking into options of using some HELOC funds to run PPC ads.
Stopped by this beautiful Thursday afternoon hoping you would have a new post up. Let em know how I can help. 🙂
Hey DNN!
Yea, as Adam (other writer) had to take a break from Wallet Squirrel, I’m rethinking how to make the writing schedule work with only 1 of us. I have a few plans in the works 😉 and will get back to a regular schedule shortly here. THANK YOU SO MUCH for continuing to stop by. I REALLY love the support. It always makes me feel better about what I’m doing.
Have an amazing day,
Andrew
wonderful my friend. Let me know how I can help if you need some more comments on your blog from readers from my site or anything else I can do for you. I understand the content marketing part. We’re only human and one person can only write so much content. In your corner 100% supporting you every step of the way to the top of the search engines! 🙂
Aww, you’re the best!
I’m getting tired of living at home, so I’m looking to move out into an apartment. Thanks for pointing out that maintenance is included with rent, so it’s okay to ask for repairs when you need them. This will really help reduce some of the stress of a lower income. Thanks so much for these great tips about renting an apartment!
I’m glad it helps! Plus I’ve never found a limit to the amount of repairs you can ask. No reason to put up with a leaky sink when it’s soneone else’s job to fix it
Stopping by to check up on you Andrew. Everything ok? 🙂