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First time apartment shopper.
Captain Vash
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So.
I've lived in a house with room mates since I moved out of my parent's place, and I'm feeling the itch to live on my own. Not that my room mates aren't great people, but I want my own space and I want to only be accountable to myself for keeping things clean.
So, I'm looking for 1 bedroom or studio apartments in seattle, preferably near/in the 98133 zip code.
but I've never done this before and I have no idea what I'm doing, or what costs I should expect, or if I should try and bargain before agreeing to a price or what.
I'm just looking for all the apartment shopping knowledge that is out there.
I've lived in a house with room mates since I moved out of my parent's place, and I'm feeling the itch to live on my own. Not that my room mates aren't great people, but I want my own space and I want to only be accountable to myself for keeping things clean.
So, I'm looking for 1 bedroom or studio apartments in seattle, preferably near/in the 98133 zip code.
but I've never done this before and I have no idea what I'm doing, or what costs I should expect, or if I should try and bargain before agreeing to a price or what.
I'm just looking for all the apartment shopping knowledge that is out there.
Captain Vash on
0
Posts
You might want to peruse the Seattle tenant laws to get a feel for what's expected of you (I highly doubt that Shoreline's laws differ that greatly) and what your rights are.
And always go through the place with the landlord before you move in and make a checklist. Anything that isn't in ship-shape condition should be noted in writing, preferably with an accompanying photograph. This will always save you a lot of grief if and when it's time to move out.
as far as location, I don't want to go so far north as to be in shoreline, more like the northgate/lakecity/broadview/greenlake area of seattle proper.
Northgate has a reputation for being sketchy as hell, and it somewhat deserves it. Greenlake is very nice (my first recommendation), but it can be costly. Lake City blows, nothing out there but a highway and strip malls.
ya
neck
ask for contact info for the previous tenants and ask them how the landlord was to them, did they get their security deposit back, etc. If they say "well, we had some problems..." just walk away from the situation entirely.
be sure to do a walkthrough of the apartment with the landlord/manager right before moving in, take pictures of anything that looks like it could be called damaged
have them sign two copies of the lease so you and the landlord can both take a copy right away
you're entitled to proof that the deposit had been properly handled (most states require an escrow account)
most of these people are actually really nice reasonable people
but the ones that are not will fuck you, no lube unless you take these basic steps to protect yourself
Learn from my mistake! Don't think to yourself, "Well, it can't be that bad since they didn't elaborate.."
Especially:
Ceilings, floorboards, and doorways (areas that are easy to get scratched).
All appliances, Insides of appliances, and backs of appliances.
Inside of closets, looking out
Any furniture that is staying with the house.
Outdoor hookups of any kind (wiring, meters, satellite dishes).
It's super easy for landlords to try to roll problems through, saying "oh that's not a big deal, I know it's there", but if it's not in the contract as an exception, you might have to pay for it.
Something to remember about all contracts- as you admit, you are inexperienced, and your potential landlord is used to this stuff. That leads to a situation where it's easy to feel that you are "bucking the system" or are juvenile by not knowing how stuff works. You're not. That's just part of the way you can get taken advantage of. A written contract is just a start of the negotiations until it's signed. Don't sign it until you're happy with it. Always remember that while you need a place, you don't need THIS place. If you start your search by being ready to walk away at any time, you defend yourself really well against getting screwed.
3clipse: The key to any successful marriage is a good mid-game transition.
btw padmapper? AWESOME tool. saved me SO much time in back forth from craigslist to googlemaps to figure out where shit was at.
Does anyone know what a good rule of thumb is as far as cost of living arrangements vs total income?
I've enjoyed very cheap rent the last two years courtesy of a friend owning a home and giving me a room, but I'm finally willing to pay for my independence and I'm looking at spending approximately 1/3 of my monthly income on rent, which means I won't have trouble keeping my bills in check, but I'll have to monitor my spending compared to my life previously.
ALSO. currently I have no credit history whatsoever? I can provide references as to my current rent payment history (on time!) but I'm seeing lots of places want to run a credit check and what they'll see is that I've never had loan, never had a car payment, never had a credit card, but I've also never been sent to collections over anything. is that going to ruin me?
I should mention, I currently have enough saved up that I could pay my first/last + deposit in cash day of if I find a place I'm in love with.