Hassle-Free Apartment Hunting

No review this week - been too busy!  Instead, welcome to Rachel's Self-Help Guide to Hassle-Free Apartment Hunting!


Hate moving?  Detest driving to a zillion different apartment complexes, walking through model after model?  Does the mere thought of spending days in such activities give you an acute case of Life Procrastination?

Then you need my seven easy steps to hassle-free apartment hunting.  And here they are, for FREE!!!!*

But wait!  THERE'S MORE!!!

Read now, and you'll receive a bonus offer of Advice Everyone Moving Should Take.  Absolutely FREE!!!  Must read this blog post within the first 30 seconds of it being posted.  We feel that is a generous interpretation of 'now'.


Here are the steps:

1. Know your budget (your actual limit, as well as your preferred rent).

2. Spend a few days looking online at ALL the apartment listing sites.  This will give you a good idea about what's available, and what you can get for how many $ in different neighborhoods.

3. Decide your must-haves.  It's important to do this after step 2 to ensure realism.

4. Get in touch with your top picks (phone or email) to see what they have available to rent in the time frame you need to move.  This will whittle down the list a bit.

5. Read the reviews for the complexes you're looking at.  Pay attention to the dates of the reviews, and keep in mind that you can't please everyone.  But if 90% of the reviews from the past year are scathingly bad, you may not want to rent there.

6. Pick a spot that's not likely to work (due to being overpriced for what you get, not due to being out of your league) and look at an apartment.  This sets the bar low.**

7. Don't forget to drive around your top picks to see if the internet missed anything, but when you find an apartment complex that doesn't depress you (or is pretty), a floor plan that you can make work (or you like), and a price that's reasonable (or what you were hoping for), take it.^

Then go home and enjoy contemplating all the unexpected free time coming your way that was formerly set aside for more apartment hunting!


You do not qualify for our FREE offer of Advice Everyone Moving Should Take.  You were too slow.  Thank you.


*Limited time only.
**I know it sounds pessimistic.  But trust me.  I did this step by accident, and it was a fantastic way to start the apartment hunt.  Instead of every apartment having something wrong with it, every apartment after that first one had something right with it, and it was a much more pleasanter [sic] experience.
^My theory is that we sometimes shop for apartments like we shop for houses, as if we're locking ourselves in to a mountain of debt and the rest of our lives living there.  It's an apartment.  You can always spend your lease looking for 'that perfect place' at your leisure, and move to said place when your lease is up.