If a landlord requires a credit report, ask to provide it yourself.  Too many “hard inquiries,” requests for your score from people other than yourself, can lower your score.  Additionally, you should attach a letter to your reports, explaining past financial hardship that resulted in a less-than-stellar number, and how those issues have been resolved so they will not affect your current ability to pay rent.

If possible, also attach a letter of recommendation from your previous landlord.  In most cases, such a recommendation will mean much more than a simple score.  And property managers want conscientious tenants, so the effort of providing extra documentation might win you points.

Know your credit history, and be aware of how it has affected your current score; as the saying goes, forewarned is forearmed.  Every year, you’re entitled to one free credit report from the three biggest credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.  The TrueCredit 3-in-1 Credit Report will tell you whether these bureaus have reported your scores differently and how each calculates your score.  Knowing these numbers ahead of time will prevent any surprise questions from a potential landlord, and may also help you understand how to build good credit going forward.

Another strategy to avoid rejection is to search for apartments whose managers don’t require credit checks.  Smaller apartments and single family homes, especially in non-competitive areas, are most likely to rent without a credit score.

Finally, it’s important to remember that most landlords don’t have a particular, deal-breaking score in mind.  It might take more time or further explaining, but if you’re proactive about your apartment search, you should be able to rent…even if your credit leaves something to be desired.

Have you been able to secure a rental with less-than-perfect credit?  Tell others how–here or on Facebook!

1. Greater Mobility

The main benefit of renting a furnished apartment is that it helps you remain mobile. If you’re not sure where you’re going to be living in 6 months, moving an apartment full of furniture around with you can really drag you down. When you’ve got a furnished place you can easily drive or fly to your new destination and move in to a new apartment right away.

2. You Have Everything You Need

Even if you’ve lived in apartments for years, it seems that there’s always something you need to run out and buy right away. Maybe your new place doesn’t have a microwave or a lamp in the bedroom. You can’t do without so you wind up running back and forth to the store for the first few days. There’s no need to worry about this in a furnished apartment; everything you need will already be inside.

3. Decorations

Many apartment renters wind up going without pictures, sculptures, flower arrangements and other decorations in their apartments. After all, these things aren’t essential and they’re usually not very cheap. Unfortunately, living in an undecorated apartment can make you feel like you’re place of residence is temporary. When you rent a furnished apartment, the decorations will come with the place, and though it might not be exactly your style, your apartment will feel more put-together. It’s always possible to go out and buy a few decorations of your own—it’s much cheaper than having to decorate the entire unit.

4. It’s Good for the Planet

Carting an apartment’s worth of stuff around with you as you move across town or across the nation is costly in terms of energy use. It takes a lot of gasoline to move all those boxes, the couch, the chairs and the pots and pans from one apartment to another and if you move frequently, moving has an even larger carbon footprint. Just about everything you’ll need is already in a furnished place and it’ll probably stay there until it’s time to replace it, which will be a lot further in the future than it is for furniture that gets tossed around in the back of a moving truck.

5. It Makes Moving a Breeze

Moving is one of the most stressful activities in a person’s life. There are a million things to remember to do, it takes weeks and weeks and it always costs three times as much as you thought it would. If you’re renting places that are furnished, you don’t have to worry about packing up an entire moving truck full of stuff. You won’t have to dig through 20 boxes to find your can opener—it’ll be in the drawer already. When you don’t need to move an apartment’s worth of stuff, you’ll be able to focus on moving yourself and getting your paperwork in order. It’ll also take you a day or so to settle in instead of a month or more.

Are you living in a pre-furnished apartment? We’d love to hear from you – here or on our Facebook page!

Other Kids in the Complex

If you’ve got a small child, one of the best things you can do is move into an apartment complex with lots of other children. Arranging play dates and signing your kids up for activities is great but kids also need time to play in an unstructured environment. Playing with other kids helps children learn to get along with others and problem solve. Kids who have lots of free-play will grow up to be more secure and independent than kids who spend most of their time in structured-play. If there are lots of kids around, there will be more opportunities for your little one to make new friends and free-play.

Proximity to Parks, Libraries and Schools

Being within walking distance of the park or library will make it easier to visit these places more often. If the school is around the corner, when it’s time to send the kids off to kindergarten there won’t be any need to worry about busing or battling the morning traffic each day. As a bonus, walking to these places will help improve your child’s physical fitness. You may also want to look for an apartment community with a park onsite.

Distance from Roads

With little kids, you can’t be too careful when it comes to roads. If you’re going to let your child play outside, which is almost always a good idea, make sure you choose a complex that is offset from the main, busy roads in your town.

Plenty of Sidewalks

An apartment complex with plenty of sidewalks around will make it much safer to walk around with your child.

Gates around the Pools

Pools are a lot of fun for kids but they are almost always unsupervised. If you would like to live in a complex with a pool, make sure that the gates lock properly so that your little one can’t wander in accidentally.

Railing on the Balcony/Well-Enclosed Patio

If you’re on the second or third story of your complex (or above if you’re in a high rise) be absolutely certain that the railing around the balcony is child-proof. This means that the bars should be close enough together that a child can’t slip through (or slip a head through, getting stuck in the railing). They should also be free of horizontal bars so that toddlers can’t climb up to the top of the railing. If you’re on the ground floor, look for a unit with a well enclosed patio and a gate that locks. The walls should also be high enough that people walking by can’t look in.

Steepness of the Steps

If you’ve got a new walker and you’re apartment is up a flight of stairs, make sure that the steps aren’t too steep so that your toddler can climb up and down on his own. Stairs should also have a rail that keeps a toddler from slipping off the sides.

Are you a parent with experience finding an apartment for you and your young ones? We’d love to hear from you – here or on our Facebook page!

Given the lag time embedded in commercial real estate, this increase in building could mean good news for years to come.  Investor’s Business Daily quoted Mark Obrinsky, chief economist with the National Multi Housing Council, as saying, “At this point, there is some noticeable pickup in new construction, but a lot more pre-construction activity is going on.” This is a welcome change from the past two years of building only 100,000 new units a year (compared to 300,000 units a year between 1998 and 2007.)

Why the sudden upswing in the real estate market? It’s a classic case of economic supply and demand.  In the lagging economy, fewer people buy and maintain their own homes, so more renters enter the market.  Furthermore, as the economy starts to recover, Gen Y is starting to find jobs and rent property for themselves. With both groups scrambling for apartments, vacancy rates are falling fast.  Manhattan rental vacancy hovers in the low single-digits, and Los Angeles boasts a 96.4% occupancy rate.  A great demand and a small supply mean that property owners can ask more money for their rentals.

In fact, rents have continually and steadily increased throughout the past two years .  Though the national average increase was  4.2% in the past year, some regions are much higher—such as San Francisco and San Jose, where have risen over 13%.  MPF Research, one of our sister companies and a consulting firm for the apartment sector, estimates that rents will climb another 4-5% in the next year.  This doesn’t mean bad news for renters, though. With all sorts of units in short supply, builders and developers are sure to expand the market for affordable (and new!) rentals, too!

Have something to say about the boom in apartment rental construction?  Comment here or on Facebook!

By MyNewPlace Guest Blogger, Ron Leshnower – About.com’s Apartment Living Expert

Understanding your lease and paying your rent are two essential aspects of apartment living, and so it’s no surprise that many apartment hunters and renters alike have questions about both topics. When these questions go unanswered, however, problems often arise that could lead to charges or even put your tenancy at risk.

Fortunately, you can get the answers to fundamental questions just by taking a moment to read up on the basics.

When it comes to apartment leases, it’s important to know the answers to the following:

What will I have to pay when I sign my lease? Who else might need to sign my lease? Do I even need a lease? Should I agree to a lease term of one year or two? What if I think a lease requirement is unfair? What happens if I need to break my lease?

Also, on top of concerns you may have for affording your rent, there are issues relating to the mechanics of making your monthly payments that you should be aware of. Do you know the answers to the following questions?:

Is paying rent in cash always a bad idea? Is it better to pay rent by credit card or check? What’s the best way to get my payment to the landlord? When and how do you prorate rent? What if my roommates don’t pay their share of the rent? Who should get my rent if I’m subletting?

Get the answers to these questions and more by checking out these new resources on apartment lease basics and rent payment basics.

Have questions for Ron? Let us know in the comment section and we’ll pass them along!

Economists agree that a big part of the economic crisis we’re in is connected intimately to the housing crash. As homes lost their value and as people faltered under home debts they could no longer pay, jobs were lost and the entire nation’s economy suffered. Despite this clear connection, not much is being done to help former homeowners recover. Likewise, not much is being done to keep current homeowners who are still falling behind on their payments from falling into the same trap.

Many of the jobs initially lost in the economic crisis were closely related to the housing market. People who worked in construction lost their jobs when the construction of new homes dropped off. As fewer people were able to buy new homes, industries that marketed goods to home owners also suffered. This domino effect eventually reached nearly all industries across the nation and also adversely affected the economy abroad.

Fixing this troubled economy is not an easy task. Economists and lawmakers disagree about how to go about fixing the problems that we all face and the argument seems all but impossible to resolve. There are many different issues and addressing one of them will not necessarily fix the others.

That said, one area of the economy that definitely deserves more attention, especially when discussing a plan to create more jobs across the nation, is the housing industry. Directly addressing the housing problem may be one way to solve many of the nation’s economic issues, especially given that this crisis caused so many of the problems that we are currently facing.

The government has spent a great deal of resources bailing out large banks after the housing crash. These handouts were justified in that they prevented many banks from going under. The failure of banks was a huge contributor to the Great Depression, a scenario the US Government was right in wanting to avoid again.

Obviously, banks were not the only entities damaged by the recent housing market crash. Individuals lost their savings, their belongings and then their jobs as the economy went from bad to worse. In many parts of the country, people are still in danger of losing their investments and the job market continues to hover at a national average of about 9 percent. While there are individuals that do receive government assistance as they struggle to pay their mortgages and hold on until they can find new jobs, the vast majority of struggling Americans receive very little or no assistance. Obama is, of course, aware of this problem and has stated that he intends to keep “responsible homeowners” from losing their homes, though an action plan for doing so remains elusive.

And the question remains, with such a damaged economy, where do we put the first band-aid when trying to quell the financial bleeding?

Have something to add? We’d love to hear from you – here or on our Facebook page.

Introducing Apartment 33A:

This sprawling, 6,000 square foot apartment located in the heart of New York City costs an outrageous $150,000 a month to rent. Yes, you read that right, it’s $150,000 a month. This apartment is located on the top floor of The Waldorf=Astoria and is well known as the former residence of Cole Porter, who lived there between 1934 and 1964. Since then, many famous guests have occupied these rooms, which is no surprise with the unit priced the way it is. Though the apartment caters to the rich and famous, as long as you have the rich part, they’d be happy to rent it out to you.

The apartment can quite comfortably hold quite a few people, with its five or six bedrooms (depending on whether you’d like to use the one as a garden room or not). The residents can easily convene in the massive living room that stretches thirty feet long on one side and twenty four on another. A reasonably sized one bedroom apartment could easily fit inside the living room of Apartment 33A.

If it’s full to capacity, it would take a big kitchen to feed all the people staying at Apartment 33A, and that’s just what the unit has. There are multiple ovens, a sub-zero freezer, three sinks and of course, a separate wine refrigerator. And if residents of this apartment get tired of cooking for themselves, there’s room service or one of the four restaurants in The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel just below.

This apartment is available to rent short or long term and if you have the disposable income, you can live in it for thirty years, just as Cole Porter did. Of course, being a part of a hotel, the apartment comes fully furnished with everything you could need. If you do happen to think of something you’d like brought up to the rooms that hasn’t already been provided, for $5,000/night, the staff of the hotel would no doubt acquire it for you.

People who rent Apartment 33A are also free to enjoy the amenities of the hotel. The Fitness Center and Guerlain Spa, business center, concierge and hotel maid service are all available to the resident of 33A. There’s even a private entrance so there’s no need to walk into the hotel lobby to get up to the apartment; a perfect situation if you ever need to hide from hordes of adoring fans.

At what point is it better, long-term financially speaking, to rent or invest one’s savings in something somewhat more permanent? The answer depends largely on a renter’s projected income, the market, and a variety of other factors. The New York Times has developed a rent vs. buy calculator which, given extensive variable inputs, helps determine a more personalized answer to the ‘rent-vs-buy’ question. Generally speaking, in the short term at least, it is often more financially feasible to rent – particularly for those of us who have just weathered a long recession and don’t have down-payment type savings in our bank accounts or credit scores that still-cautious lenders might favor.

Though the recession is officially over, the relief of such news is yet to be felt in the bank accounts of many people across the nation. Unemployment is still high, credit is still hard to come by and many homes are still about to go into foreclosure. Economists warn that many areas, especially regions with highly inflated prices that experienced sudden drops in value, should expect the housing market to get worse before it gets better. As more families lose their homes through foreclosures or short sales, the apartment market will see a sharp rise in demand. A great resource to track demand in different markets is the ‘Housing Bubble Blog‘ – a good one to add to your RSS reader if this is an issue you are following.

The economy is a complicated creature, one that is difficult for even the experts to predict, but at its heart, it is usually driven by a simple concept: when demand goes up, prices go up; when supply goes up, prices go down. Experts predict that two things are due to happen with the rental market in the near future: an increase in demand as more people lose their homes, and a decrease in supply, since new apartment units are not being built quickly enough to fill the increase in demand. Put these two things together, and we can expect as we have been speculating for quite a while now – an economic climate of drastically rising rates in rent.

Of course, the rise and fall of rental prices varies considerably from state to state and city to city, but nationwide, experts are predicting a significant jump in rental rates. Over the past ten years, rent has increased on average about 1% per year. In 2011 and 2012, rents could rise at a rate closer to 3% or 4% each year. Markets with a sharp increase in demand for rental units could see higher increases, pushing a 5% increase each of these years.

Nationally, we seem to be trending towards higher rental prices. High unemployment will drive the demand for rent up because people who are unemployed or underemployed are not able to save up for a large purchase such as a house. Areas with high rates of foreclosures will also see an increase in demand for apartments. Though many areas across the nation are experiencing both of these things, there are other places that have seen an increases in the construction of new homes and sometimes decreases in the cost of property. In these regions, rental prices may fall as more people find it possible to afford to buy a home, many of which are selling at low prices.

Epilogue:

Is buying a home still very much a part of the American dream? So far, the answer seems like it is – even if at times it seems an impossible goal to attain. In the meantime, the folks who write this blog are renters and quite happily so – and we will do our best to continue to find ways to make renting awesome!

Have thoughts? A blog that follows rental markets? Experience to share? We’d love to hear from you – here or on our Facebook page!

From what I’ve read, these senior villages sound about a million times better than the cookie-cutter senior homes that some refer to as a way to “warehouse the old.” Multifamily should study up on what it is about senior villages that make them appealing. After all, if they’ve been designed by the very people happy to live in them or participate in them, that’s a pretty good vote of confidence, right?

Maybe I should back up and describe what, exactly, a senior village is.

According to an article on Shareable.com on the topic, senior villages are where, for an annual membership fee, members stay in their own homes but have social events, meet-ups, discussion groups, fitness classes, and field trips planned out for them. Plus, services are consolidated; if a senior villager needs anything from help getting to the grocery store to a tall someone to come over and change a light-bulb, there’s just one number they call.

(If you’re starting to realize that multifamily communities that offer these kinds of services to customers could be seen by prospective renters in the 60-and-up-set as the best thing since sliced bread, you’re probably right.)

One point about senior villages is that they don’t necessarily have to be geographically in the same area. But they can be.

With cohousing, a practice where a cluster of individually owned homes are centered around common areas, residents decide together what the area’s activities and rules will be. Everyone lives in his or her own house, but there are common areas with full kitchens and gathering areas, plus regular group meals.

(Does this sound like a college dorm, except without the random roommates, bunk beds, and shared showers to anyone else?)

Senior cohousing can help elders, especially those living on their own, experience a rich and affordable social life while retaining independence. Multifamily might take note of senior cohousing resources to create communities in the future that, either through creating cohousing spaces or though delivering high-caliber customer service options of a “village”, cater to the bright golden years that many senior citizens are beginning to demand. Giving community members the option to access additional services is one way multifamily communities can get an edge and set themselves apart against competitors. In addition, elder renters will likely be happier to settle down in a community where they know they’ll be provided for.

In case you hadn’t guessed where I was going with this: renters who stay put are your favorite kind, right?

The issue is raised because in the case of Guggenheim v. City of Goleta, a 2009 case, a lower court ruled against the property owner. Because it’s a rent control case, Guggenheim v. City of Goleta could set precedent allowing cities throughout California to revisit the rent control question for all rental housing.

CAA’s legal fund filed an amicus brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the lower court’s ruling (filing an amicus brief is a way a group with strong interest in the subject matter of the case to raise the court’s awareness of a particular aspect of the case; the court, however, isn’t required to consider the brief).  In the brief, CAA argues that rent control has been shown to decrease the quality and quantity of available affordable housing, also arguing that rent control has been linked to “high-priced shadow markets” and has disproportionately benefited high-income renters “who hoard price-controlled units.” They say rent control laws—originally created to protect renters from landlords making huge profits—create artificial restraints that are detrimental because they prohibit landlords from charging what prices the market will allow. In turn, they argue, this means landlords don’t have the extra cash on hand that they might otherwise invest in new housing or improving existing housing.

From the opposite perspective in the rent control debate, rent control is a necessary form of protection. Without rent control—also known as rent stabilization—tenant rights defenders say unscrupulous landlords could threaten tenants with rent raises if the tenants complained about defects in the property.

Some states, such as New York, hold that rent control is a necessity, needed to sustain a supply of affordable housing and keep rent raises from driving out workers or vulnerable people; it’s true that without rent control, high or frequent rent increases can cause families have to move more often, causing negative impacts on schools, youth groups and community organizations.

Since the case at hand is in California, it may be useful to know that with rent stabilization, landlords are free to set vacant units at market prices; it’s just that once the unit is rented, all increases that follow are capped at a set percentage. San Francisco is one large city with rent stabilization.

It’s certain we’ll be hearing more about this issue as the Supreme Court hears the appeal on the case. But I’m not sure how much of an impact changes will have, given that these days, availability of mortgages seems to be the constraining factor on development of new apartment projects; MultiHousing News Online reported that a representative of the National Multi Housing Council and the National Apartment Association testified before a key subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee that the Department of Housing and Urban Development is failing to keep pace with the volume of multifamily mortgage applications.