Renting an Apartment

Back to first Five Things

Thing No 6  

Check the comps

Used to be only home buyers could see what similar homes in the neighborhood went for but with rentometer.com you can enter the address, monthly rent, number of bedrooms and units in the building and it will tell you if you're paying more or less than comparable units in the neighboorhood or if it's just right.  It uses data available from other sources and mashes it up with a Google Maps application and voila -- you're in the know.

Thing No 7  

When it finally happens…ACT! 

So, after weeks of crack houses, psycho landlords and feeling that one gem slipping through your fingers as the words “sorry, it was just rented 5 minutes ago” ring in your ears…there it is.  It’s nearly perfect, you can nearly afford it and it’s just been listed.  This is where we bust out of our Clark Kent street clothes and move into action.  This is not for the faint of heart.  Here’s the goal; you must get a check into the owner’s hands if it kills you.  Tell them right there, on the spot, I want this place, let me write you a check right now.  He or she will blush and say things about taking applications and showing the place and blah, blah, blah.  Don’t be rude or arrogant (rarely a good idea when you want something from your prey) just smile and say “actually, that’s fine but I’d really like to write you a check now.”  The game here is that at the end of the day, she wants to rent the place before losing any more time having it sit empty.  As long as you seem like a lovely tenant who, btw, really appreciates the place, at the end of the day, you’ll end up with it because otherwise she’d be looking a gift horse in the mouth.  She could drag it out and look at more people, but why?  Besides, all those gems that slipped through your fingers?  That’s how they did it.