Your Ideal Apartment

Put Your Apartment on Paper

Apartment hunting, as with any significant personal endeavor, can be a stressful and difficult process. In order to find your ideal apartment, with the minimum amount of headaches, you should first make a list of things that you definitely need, things that would be nice to have, where you would like to live and how much your rental budget can afford.

Where Will Your New Apartment Be?

Your apartment search should start with deciding where you would like to live. Whether this is determined by your job, your family or other factors, it is important to at least have a few neighborhoods or areas in which you will base your search.

Matching Your Lifestyle with a Neighborhood

The location of your new apartment will be the most important and influential factor. What kind of lifestyle do you envision? Would you prefer the tranquility of a quiet suburb or the excitement of bustling city streets? Will your family feel comfortable and be able to enjoy the neighborhood? Your location will define your apartment more than any other feature under consideration.

Make a list of what things you would like your neighborhood to have; restaurants, grocery stores, shops, parks, beaches, bike trails, Laundromats, daycare, playgrounds are all important neighborhood features to consider before you rent an apartment.

Commuting

You need to think of where everyone needs to regularly go and how they will get there. This includes figuring out how you can most efficiently get yourself to work and if you have kids, them to school. It is going to be difficult to enjoy your new apartment and neighborhood if you never see it during daylight.

Many cities have great public transit systems that may have stops in and around the neighborhoods where you would like to rent an apartment. If you plan on driving, be sure that you have more than one route to work mapped out and that you can park easily.

Also, be sure to consider other places that you will need to be on a regular basis. Picking up kids from school, attending ball games, going to the gym, going to the grocery store, etc. are all places and activities that you may need to go to at least once a week.

Make a list of places that you regularly attend and be sure to check to see that your favorite neighborhood can support all of your commuting needs.

Kids and Apartments

If you have kids, location is going to be a major factor in your decision. Do some research on the local schools at sites such as greatschools.net. Also, safety and security are major concerns; you can check out crime statistics at fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm and peruse local papers for information on crime rates and safety issues.

One of the best ways to figure out if your children will enjoy a new apartment is to see if there other kids are around. If there are lots of families with kids of a similar age, then your kids will have friends to hang around with; they will also probably share some of the same activities, so that you can arrange carpools or even host events and parties for the neighborhood kids. Having a nice neighborhood network of parents can be extremely helpful.

Apartment Amenities

After you decide your location, you can begin to make a list of what amenities your ideal apartment will offer. The following list is comprised of questions and tips you should consider when making your own comprehensive list. After you have your list organized, you can see which rental listings are available in your chosen area.

• How many people will be living in your apartment? How many bedrooms and bathrooms will you require?
• How big does your kitchen need to be? Is an efficiency kitchen sufficient for you cooking and dining needs?
• Will you need any rooms besides bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen and a living room? How big of a living room will you need?
• How much storage stuff do you own? Apartments can sometimes be inconveniently short on storage space. Be sure to check to see if the apartment building offers onsite storage lockers.
• How many cars do you have and will you require onsite parking?
• What kinds of pets do you have? Some apartment buildings have very strict pet policies; some allow cats, some dogs, some both and there are even some size limitations on dogs and breeds that are prohibited.
• What kind of outdoor areas are you looking for? Is a deck, patio, yard or pool area on your list?
• Will you want to have such communal amenities such as an exercise center, a business center, and a pool and barbeque area for recreation?
• Do you, a family member or roommate have disabilities? Will you need wheelchair accessibility? Wide doorways, accessible bathing and toilet facilities and lower counter heights are all concerns for people with disabilities.

Apartment Needs versus Apartment Wants

After you compose your list of areas and amenities, prioritize all of your options and make sure you can come up with an acceptable balance that will meet your budget. You will probably, as tends to happen in life, need to make some compromises and decisions.

Be sure to determine which amenities you absolutely need and which are not all that necessary for your new apartment. In our next article, we'll help you Calculate your Apartment Budget.