In our last blog post, we touched upon various reasons why people may consider renting over buying their home. These reasons included factors such as the costs involved, your current lifestyle and/or job situation, and simple personal preference.
If you have made the decision to rent rather than purchase your next home, you’ll want to know what you’re getting into and what to look for when renting. Doing your research so you can find the rental property that’s best for is just as important as the decision-making process that goes into purchasing a home.
Preeti Sharma says the following about the importance of choosing the right rental property in a recent article titled, “Top 10 questions to ask before renting a house” on MSN.com:
“Finding the right apartment [or house] to rent is a big decision as it affects your life and lifestyle. It affects everything from your commuting time to where you eat and sleep to where you shop for groceries and whether you can easily host guests.”
Regardless of how long you plan to live in the rental you choose, you’ll want a place that feels like “home” and one that you feel comfortable in.
Here are a few things that you’ll want to know about and look for when renting:
1. Security and safetyLocks and deadbolts are essential for keeping your home, possessions, and family safe, of course. It is also useful to know that your property’s level of security can make an impact on your insurance rates. As well, you’ll also check to make sure the rental properties you’re considering have working smoke detectors (at the very least) and fire extinguishers.
2. StorageBefore choosing a rental property, it’s a good idea to take inventory of the things you plan to use in your new place which items you will be storing when you aren’t using them. This will help you with deciding on properties with enough storage space so you won’t have to unnecessarily shell out extra money for external storage.
3. CleanlinessIn some cases, what you see is what you get when it comes to rental properties. If you fall in love with a property which may not be as clean as you would like, you might have to “clean house,” so to speak, when you’re moving in - as long as you’re comfortable with it and it’s not a health hazard.
Along those same lines, you’ll also want to check for signs of unwanted insects, reptiles, and rodents. If you don’t feel right about the property’s cleanliness and/or sanitation then don’t hesitate to keep looking.
4. Noise LevelsYou probably already know how much noise you can tolerate and what you can and cannot tune out. If you’re sensitive to noise, you probably won’t feel comfortable in a property with loud neighbors or one that’s located near a busy highway or airport, for example.
5. Water lines, pipes and fixturesCheck to make sure to test all
These are only a few things for people to look for when renting, but it’s a start. What other recommendations would you add to this list?
Related Resources
MSN Top 10 questions to ask before renting a house
Curbed Philly Rental Checklist: 10 Things to Do When You Look at a Rental