Of renting houses

bowen

So my apartment's lease is about to expire and I want to get away from this hellhole and into a more stable area. Something where my car isn't going to get rammed into by a fucking plow anymore would be ideal. Or worry about some neighborhood kids sitting outside my window starting trouble.

There are a few houses for rent in the area and I am just wondering what I should be looking out for when I do this, as I've only really had experience with renting apartments. Agreements, down payments, rent and utilities? Do I worry about the taxes and things like water payment?

witch_ie

We rent a house from a private owner. As far as the leases go, you should expect something very similar to what you have seen for apartments (no property taxes for you - those apply to the owner). There are a few additional considerations to keep in mind though:

1) Yard maintainance - is this something you pay for or do or is it the responsibility of the owner/landlord
2) You will probably end up paying all your utilities directly inculding water, gas/electric, and trash
3) Responsibilities around appliances such as washer/dryer, refrigerators
4) Other home repairs - this is normally the financial responsibility of the owner/landlord, however you need to let them know when they are needed since they are not usually around the property as often as an apartment manager

schuss

Also see if you can get a copy of the past years utilities. Should give you an idea if it's well insulated with efficient heat or not.

bowen

Good ideas. I would never have thought of that.

Modern Man

Witch_ie covered the main points. Maintenance of the yard and driveway are the big differences from an apartment. If you live where it snows, who will be responsible for shoveling snow?

All this stuff is factored into the rent, of course. A place where the landlord does everything, expect to pay more rent.

adytum

If you're going from corporate-managed properties to renting from an individual, be prepared for the very real possibility you'll be moving into crazytown.

Make sure you're comfortable with the landlord. If you have any reservations about one, I'd suggest skipping over that property and continuing your search.

adytum

Just for reference, my last landlord seemed a little sketchy when we met him, but we figured he was a fairly successful lawyer so what could go wrong?

We spent a year with:

Broken windows that were never fixed.
A kitchen sink whose plumbing would fall apart if you ran too much water through it (as it was held together with electrical tape).
Heating bills that were off the chart thanks to broken windows, enormous gaps under doors, a complete lack of a flu in the fireplace.. landlord said it was our fault for opening the doors too much.
Locks that were never changed, and an exterior door that would open with a slight application of force. Luckily we were never robbed!
Roaches!
Poor electrical wiring that overloaded when everyone was home.

It took several months to get our deposit back, because the landlord forgot which bank account he deposited it in and accused us of lying to and trying to defraud him.

So really, make sure your landlord is on the up-and-up. I can't give any stronger advice than that if you're dealing with an individual renter. They can and will make your life a living hell, and in many states individual landlords are exempted from landlord-tenant legal statutes.

bowen

Hmm good point, I probably would've thought the same thing.

Sir Carcass

Yeah, I'll second trying to rent a house that uses a leasing office. They'll also usually have their own maintenance people (or contract a company), so you don't have to worry about setting it up yourself or repeatedly going after the owner.

Like mentioned, for the most part it's the same as renting an apartment, just awesomer. The only thing I'd say to be wary of is rent prices in general are on the rise, but that only really applies to renting vs buying. Just keep it in mind.

If you've got the cash, unless you just love yard work I'd probably go with a lawn service. Depending on the area they can be had for a decent price (we pay $25 every two weeks). Our HoA is really anal about yards, so this way it gets done and gets done right (I suck at edging and always have, not to mention I absolutely loathe yard work).

That brings up another difference, HoAs. Ugh. If your neighborhood has one, you'll have to sign a separate agreement for it, so keep that in mind. Some are okay, I guess, but they get pretty ridiculous in what you can and can't do. With ours, you have to get approval for the color of the stain you want to use on your fence.... It's seriously like a 20+ page document of their regulations and all exceptions have to go through their board or whatever.

It probably depends on the property, but you may have to provide your own refrigerator. We did in our current place.

Reverend_Chaos

Expect to pay more for a house. They are generally going to have more square footage, even for the same number of bedrooms, and a yard, so expect it to cost more. Be thorough with your inspection when you are looking. If you do move in, you need to be VERY thorough of your walk in inspection, because any damage not on your walk-in, will more than likely be on your walk out. I am very thorough and I still got screwed on a couple of things. My current landlord replaced all the interior doors upstairs. Awesome right? Well the closet door in my daughter's room is slightly too small, but they just installed it anyway and hid this fact with the molding on the outside of the closet. It wasn't until the door hinges came loose and the door fell off that I looked at the door jamb from the inside of the closet and found the slapshod job the guy did putting it in. I could argue with him about it, but it would be easier for me to just fix it and put it back up myself.

Familiarize yourself with local and state tenant laws. Does your state require that your landlord paints between every tenent? If the law requires it, and he doesn't do it, that can be a bad sign of things to come if you rent a house from him. If you rent through a rental agency you should research the agency. Some are fantastic, others are middleman slumlords. Just do your research and you will greatly minimize your chances of getting into a bad situation.

bowen

Yeah I think I'd rather keep on my crusade to rent a house. I'm getting tired of the apartment lifestyle and my property (car) being damaged at least once every few months.

If the few houses I've found don't play out, how do I find more? Apartment Finder is obviously broken. Should I go through a real estate agent and pay commission?

Sir Carcass

Look for leasing offices in your area. They will have listings of the properties they manage that are currently available. You shouldn't have to pay any kind of commission or anything.

bowen

The only leasing offices I've ever seen are onsite in apartment complexes, unfortunately. My googlefu is turning up retarded pieces of shit, or people who think their trailers are worth $1600 a month. Olol wat, this isn't NYC.

adytum

Craigslist.

SkyGheNe

Padmapper is pretty awesome.

http://www.padmapper.com/

bowen

Hmm that's pretty neat.

ahava

I used to (when I was daydreaming) go through the remax site and just look at things like that. they do rentals as well as sales.

there should be a real estate broker in your area, they will most likely do rentals as well. the big company back home (owned by a family that's been in town since there was a town) rented more than sold houses, so I would start there.

but keep on keeping on. I kinda wish i had a house to rent, instead of an apartment. or at least a bigger apartment.