I recently had the pleasure of helping my daughter search for her first apartment. Helping your child make a good decision on their first apartment is a great life skill to teach them. However, my last apartment living was more than 25 years ago when I was just out of college and before I got married. So needless to say, I had a hard time remembering the things to consider when looking for an apartment. But, now that it is fresh on my mind I want to share with you the important things your child should consider when searching for their first apartment. Don’t let the experience be stressful, it is really an exciting time! You’re child’s first place of their own. One step closer to adulthood; and after all this is what you have prepared them for!

Location, Location, Location…A Very Important Apartment Consideration

As with any real estate, it’s all about the location. The first thing your child should decide is how close to their daily activities they would like to be. Do they want to stay close so they can still easily and quickly attend many of those activities? Or, are they ready to move farther away from all the hustle and bustle to have a quieter and homier place to live? This question is very important as it not only relates to the type of lifestyle your child may want, but it will also be a factor in the cost of the apartment. The closer you are to areas where there are many activities, the higher the prices of the apartment will be. However, there are also expenses to living further from your daily activities; such as paying for parking permits, additional gasoline, and more use of their car means more wear and tear on the car.

Roommates or Living Alone…Decision for Apartment Living

Another important factor in searching for an apartment is who will occupy the apartment. Does your child want to have roommates or would they like to live alone? The benefit of living with roommates is that you can split the costs. The more roommates (or the more filled bedrooms in the apartment) the cheaper the apartment and related expenses are. Another benefit of having roommates is you have a built-in social life by having roommates. Not only will you have opportunities to socialize with your roommates, but also friends of your roommates. This can be a good thing if your child isn’t very social or outgoing and making friends is hard for them. However, if you live with roommates you might have to compromise on decisions like apartment location, pets, house cleaning expectations, and the number of visitors in your apartment.

If your child chooses to live with roommates, they will need to either have roommates chosen when they are ready to sign a lease on a college apartment, or they will need to look at apartments that offer roommate matching services. This is a new concept for me, as they did not have this service when I was living in apartments. When I was looking for college apartments, I would look at apartments with the number of bedrooms to match the number of roommates I had. But nowadays, some apartment complexes allow your child to sign a lease on a 4 bedroom even if they don’t have three other roommates and the apartment leasing office will fill the rest of the bedrooms by using their roommate matching service. But do your homework, not all apartments offer this service.

Uncover Hidden Fees…By Asking the Right Questions

There are many questions to ask the leasing office to make sure you have uncovered any hidden fees there may be when searching for a first apartment. Some apartment leasing offices will tell you more than others. But to make sure you uncover as many hidden fees as possible ask lots of questions. Utilities are included in many apartment complexes’ monthly rent…at least that is what they tell you. To fully understand that statement, ask the leasing office these two questions. What specific utilities are included in the monthly rent? And, what is the maximum monthly utility fee that will be covered in the monthly rent? We found by asking these questions only some of the utilities were covered or they covered up to a certain amount of utility expenses. Anything over that amount your child would be responsible for.

We ran across a few other surprising hidden fees while apartment hunting. One of these was a fee for a balcony. If the apartment had a balcony they charged more for rent. The fees for the balconies were different. If the balcony was shared with a neighbor it was less expensive than if the balcony was private. Fortunately, they happened to mention something during our tour that led me to ask the question. But this will not always be the case. Be on the lookout for any unique items that not all apartments have and ask if that item is included in the base monthly rental cost or an additional fee will be charged for that item.

One of the most surprising hidden fees we ran into at one apartment complex was a bathtub fee. I know, crazy, huh? You’re are probably as shocked as I was. Luckily, we had toured several different apartment layouts in this complex and noticed some had bath/shower combinations and some just had showers. My daughter happened to mention that if she were to choose an apartment at their complex she would want one that had a bathtub. We were told $15 a month would be added to the rent for apartments with bath/shower combinations. Needless to say, we did not choose that location!

Pets or No Pets…Some Apartments Allow and Some Don’t

Pets or no pets…this is a decision that needs to be discussed with everyone living in the apartment. Make sure everyone is on board with having a pet if your child will have roommates. If not everyone is on board, there should not be any pets brought into the apartment. Once this decision has been made by all and if the decision is to have a pet, your child will need to find apartments that allow pets. We found that most places do allow pets, but have various fees for having a pet in their complex. Some complexes want the entire pet fee paid upfront. Other apartment complexes choose to charge a monthly pet fee. Be sure to ask lots of questions about pet fees as each apartment complex is different. Here are some questions to consider asking if the apartment allows pets.

• Is there a pet deposit? If so, how much?
• What is the monthly pet fee?
• What does the pet deposit and/or monthly pet fee cover?
• Are the pet fees charged per room or pet?
• Does each person in the apartment have to pay for the pet fees or just the owner of the pet?
• Are there certain areas of the complex that pets are not allowed?
• Is there an additional fee at the end of the lease for cleaning the carpets or other maintenance?

Consider Apartment Amenities…Nice to Have, but Not a Necessity

Many newer apartments have most of the same amenities as nice hotels. This was a big surprise for me when I was apartment searching with my daughter. The amenities that were common in these newer-style apartment complexes were pools, outdoor courtyards with grilling areas, sand volleyball courts, parking garages, fitness gyms, and a dedicated study/computer area. While these extra amenities are nice, they are certainly not necessities. Realize that your child will be paying for these amenities whether or not they use any of them. This is something to keep an eye out for when searching for your child’s first apartment as rent may be higher in these types of apartments.

Renters Insurance…Required or Not for Apartment Living

The need for Renter’s Insurance depends on the apartment complex. We found that the majority of the complexes we toured did require renter’s insurance. We mostly toured large apartment complexes with hotel-type amenities and fully furnished options. It is a question that you should ask the leasing office when searching for an apartment. If the apartment complex does require renter’s insurance you usually have two options. One is to use your own insurance company for renter’s insurance. The other option is to use the renter’s insurance through the apartment’s leasing office. After a quick call, we found that it was cheaper to go through our own insurance company.

While helping your child search for their first apartment is fun and exciting, it is also a big step and needs to have a lot of thought put into the search. With these considerations, you and your child should be able to get a great start on asking the right questions that will lead to the perfect first apartment.