Things to Look For When Inspecting a Place to Rent

[James]

When you are looking at apartments or rental houses, there are several things that you should do.  Most prospective tenants just look around the place, and within a few minutes they are out of the apartment.  They really don’t know anything about the apartment after they leave except whether or not it looks good.   If you are going to rent an apartment or a house, here are some simple inspections that you should do before you sign the lease.

l Inspect the windows.  If you are responsible for paying for the heat, you are going to want to make sure that the windows are nice enough.  If you are standing next to the windows, you shouldn’t be able to feel the cold from outside. Since you are standing by the windows, make sure that you can open and close them all the way.  A lot of apartment windows tend to get stuck from years of abuse by tenants. 
l Take a look at the appliances.  You may feel weird about checking to make sure that the oven turns on or asking how old the refrigerator is, but it is going to tell you how much the landlord knows about the property and how well he maintains it. 
l Check the water pressure and temperature.  The one thing that bothers a lot of people is that they never get enough hot water in their apartment, or the water has to run for minutes before it is hot enough to use.  If there isn’t a hot water heater in the apartment, turn on the tap in the kitchen and test to see how long it is going to take to get hot. 
l If you are renting a house, make sure to take a look at the basement.  Make sure to look around the edges and in the corners, where there might be a lot of mold.  If you smell a musty, moldy smell, you may want to be concerned with the basement turning into a huge puddle every time it rains more than a quarter of an inch.  The same goes for the attic.  If you notice any wet spots, the roof is bad.  If it smells like something died up there, it’s because something probably has, and you will hear squirrels and birds walking around night and day. 
l Don’t be afraid to spend more than a couple of minutes inside of the property.  Make sure you imagine your furniture in the space, making sure that you are going to be able to fit the sofa and the love seat in the living room.  While you are imagining where everything is going to go, you should make sure that everything is going to fit through the doors, and figure out how you are going to wrangle the mattresses and other big furniture up to the second floor. 
l Finally, you should walk around the outside of the house or any of the common areas of the apartment complex.  Ask your landlord who is responsible for maintaining the lawn, and how often they are going to be maintained.   If you enjoy gardening and working outside, you can always ask your landlord for a reduction in rent in lieu of taking care of the lawn and shoveling the snow.  You can tell a lot about the condition of the property just by how the lawn and exterior of the building or house is maintained.

Remember that you hold the power before you sign the lease, especially if you are an attractive and trustworthy tenant.  You want to bring up any repairs or renovations, and get them in writing before you commit to renting the house.  If you notice that something is broken or missing, point it out, and make sure that it gets fixed before you move in.  Not only do you not want workers to be working in your apartment after you move in, but this will give you a good opportunity to see whether or not your landlord is receptive to repair requests, and whether or not he or she follows through. 


  James...