A popular article in the city of New York has established that almost 87% of students live off-campus, that is, they rent an apartment outside the school campus. Many students, especially new students, need to get themselves acquainted with the renter’s guide to avoiding scams. If you want to keep yourself safe when you are looking for dissertation help, check out this website.
Factors to Be Considered Before Renting
As a student that wants to rent an apartment, there is a need for you to consider some factors. It will help you to avoid costly pitfalls that tend to surface in the rental process. The following are questions you critically need to ask yourself before committing yourself to rent an apartment.
What Can You Afford?
The average cost of renting a one-bedroom apartment in major cities of America ranges from $1,171 to $3,600, according to Business Insider. This figure is 32.8% of the annual expenditure of an average student.
The above data shows that aside tuition, housing is the most significant expenditure of a student. As a student, your budget for housing should not be above 30% of your net income.
Therefore, you must set a monthly rental budget with consideration of some other upfront costs like First and last Month’s rent, Security deposit, Pet deposits, and Holding Fees. Most times, property managers use this lump sum to reduce their student-tenant population. It is, therefore, essential that you make them part of your rental budget.
How Do You Choose A Roommate?
In an attempt to choose a compatible roommate, you need to consider some factors that can enhance your stay together. Such concerns are:
Their source of income
- Are they trustworthy? You need to be sure if you can trust them with your belongings
- Their willingness to sign the lease contract and abide by it
- Do they have pets, and can you cope with it?
- Their social lifestyle and who they will invite over as a guest
What kind Of Property and The Rent Period?
As a student, you can either rent a house or an apartment. You need to understand the advantages and disadvantages that come with the two.
An apartment is more secure than a house because there is private entry to the building. Likewise, there will be few tenants compared to a house that is more spacious and contains more tenants. There is always privacy in an apartment compared to a house where hallways, trash rooms, kitchens, and living areas can be shared.
Before signing the lease contract, you must understand the rent period in a formal agreement which can be in any of the following categories:
- Annual or one year lease
- Half-year lease (6 months)
- Three months lease
- Month-to-month lease.
In the above categories, one year lease is always advisable for a student because it is cheaper because of its long term nature.
What Are The Documents You Need to Rent?
Landlords and property managers will need you to tender some documents to protect their interests. You might need to make the following documents available:
- Social security number and date of birth
- Rental history and contacts of former landlords
- Personal reference
- Bank statement to validate income
- Co-signer information in the case of insufficient history
