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Golden Gate Bridge in San FranciscoRent is one of the many expenses that can vary quite a bit depending on where you live. And the more expensive it gets, the more important it becomes to find the right place the first time. Here are some helpful tips to help you find an apartment in some of the more expensive cities in the U.S.

Los Angeles, California

  • Median studio apartment: $1,405
  • Median one-bedroom apartment: $1,740
  • Median two-bedroom apartment: $2,406

If you want to get an apartment in LA, the first thing you need to understand is your budget. You shouldn’t be spending more than 1/40th of your annual gross income on an apartment. So if you are making only $40,000/year before taxes, you need an apartment that costs less than $1,000 a month. The choices in this price range will be limited, so you may need creative alternatives such as finding one (or multiple) roommates.

Roommates Having a FightThe day has finally arrived. You just moved back to college and into your new student housing apartment. Summer is over and you are gearing up for an action-packed semester. However, the worst-case scenario has come true: you have discovered that one of your roommates is also your worst nightmare. You definitely cannot live like this until December. So what can you do? Use these tips to wake up from the nightmare and into a happier apartment life for the fall semester.

Can the Problems be Resolved?

In many cases, the challenges of a bad roommate are ones of perception. People from different experiences and backgrounds than you often make completely different lifestyle choices. Many times, a meeting of the minds and a discussion about each other’s expectations can provide a mutually beneficial solution. Get everyone in the apartment involved and keep the tone of the discussion light. No one wants to feel confronted.

Furnished Apartment with CORT FurnitureThere are several great reasons to rent a furnished apartment, the most obvious being “furniture you don’t have to pay for!” But there is a lot more to take into account when deciding between a furnished and unfurnished apartment. Here are some important considerations:

Rarity

Furnished apartments are significantly rarer, which has a lot of effect on your search. Most importantly, it means that the likelihood of finding a furnished apartment in the best possible location is much smaller than finding an unfurnished one. Location is usually the single most important thing about an apartment since it determines the amount of time and gas money you will have to spend to get to the places you need to go, so this is a big deal. That said, if you do find a furnished apartment near where you need to be, it will often save you enough money on purchasing furniture to make up for the extra rent you will pay versus a comparable unfurnished unit. This also depends, however, on how long you plan to stay there.

Boy Hugging His MotherThe tears began to well up in Shawna’s eyes. She tried hard to make sure Sam didn’t see. It was always like this on this particular day every year. Sam looked back and waved as he got onto the school bus to his first day of 5th grade. She pushed back the tears, smiled and waved, then started the walk back to her apartment. Summer was over and school was back in session.

She closed her apartment door and walked to the kitchen for a fresh cup of coffee. As she scooped the grounds into the coffee filter, she once again began to cry. She remembered his very first day of school just like it was yesterday. He had cried before they left the apartment. Now he was a “big boy” and “too cool” to be seen with his mom doting over him. She wiped away the final tears, poured a fresh cup, and walked out on the balcony to enjoy a little peace and quiet.

Things haven’t been easy since Steven went back on active duty. He had been in Afghanistan for most of Sam’s life. Luckily, they had found an apartment that was close to the base, their friends, and a top-rated school district. Their old house had been too much for her to keep up by herself and was not in a great location for the things Sam would want as he grew up. When he left for overseas, Steven had agreed that she should find an apartment best suited for them.

Movers unloading a moving vanMoving is stressful in any scenario. Whether you are moving across town or across the country, there seems to be an insurmountable mountain of preparation. Tasks include finding a new home, finding new schools for your children, packing, moving all your belongings, turning off utilities at your old place at the right time, and turning on the utilities at your new apartment.

However, when you are moving for job relocation, the process is even more complicated. Now, on top of everything else, you have to adjust to a new work environment and fellow employees as well as learn your way around a new city. Fortunately, this is what ApartmentSearch specializes in: helping businesses and people in transition have a smooth and easy move to their new location.

Apartment Keys Given to a CoupleIf you’re looking for an apartment without a job, then you’re probably running into some trouble. The unfortunate fact about apartment-hunting is that if you don’t have an immediately obvious, reliable source of income, your chance of being approved for an apartment is significantly lower. These rigid rental guidelines can make it difficult to find an apartment if you have an unusual source of income — such as being a freelancer or making your money online — and impossible if you have nothing you can call a ‘job’ at all. Fortunately, landlords are people too, so it is possible to find one who is willing to deal with you; you just have to be ready to make a few gestures to show good faith.

Offer a Deposit

One of the ways you can prove that you’ll get money is by showing that you have money. If you put two months’ rent down — above and beyond your security deposit — you can often convince a landlord to sign you up, knowing that you’ve got, at the minimum, a couple of months to get your income in line. Just be willing to show him where you got the money; some landlords are very leery of too much cash coming from someone with no visible job because it makes them think you might be into some kind of illegal activity.

New York City on MapLooking for an apartment is difficult enough when you live in the area; there are a lot of decisions to be made and a lot of options to research. Add in the complexities of living a few hundred (or thousand!) miles away, and trying to find an apartment you can live with seems like a monumental challenge. To find the right apartment in a new city, you need a solid game plan. Here are three steps to follow to get you going in the right direction:

Step 1: List Your Needs

Get a piece of paper, and write down everything you like and dislike about your current living arrangement. Then write down everything you MUST have in a new place, and everything that would be a deal breaker. Just brainstorm for now—you can always cross things off later (and you will). Give the most thought to location. Is the apartment close enough to the places you’ll want to go to the most? It doesn’t matter how amazing your digs are if you are located forty-five minutes from the place(s) you need to be every day; you’ll never get those hour-and-a-half commutes back.

vacation-beachIt’s the typical summer renter dilemma: you want to take a vacation, but you hate the thought of paying rent and utilities for an apartment while you’re not even living in it! The good news is that there are plenty of people trying to find an apartment to stay in over the summer. Whether they are in between apartment lease terms, college students attending summer classes, or going on vacation themselves, apartments for sublet are in high demand. If your bags are packed and you’re ready to go with no subletter in sight, use these tips to find a temporary occupant for your apartment while you’re away.