Whether you’re fresh out of school and are looking for your first apartment to rent, recently divorced and looking for a place to live, or just moving to a new city and aren’t yet sure where you’d like to buy a house, the prospect of renting an apartment can be daunting. You need to figure out things like lease terms, renters insurance and pet rules, not to mention finding the apartment in the first place. If you’re not careful, the apartment-hunting process can be an extremely stressful one. At the very least, you’re covering some new territory.
One of the first concerns you are going to have when looking for an apartment is how much you’re going to need to get into the apartment. There are a number of costs involved, and knowing what to expect will help you to be prepared to move in when you find that perfect place:
- Security Deposits. Before you rent an apartment, the landlord is likely to require a security deposit. The security deposit does a couple of things. First of all, it is there to cover the cost of repairing damages that may occur while you’re living in the apartment. On top of that, however, a security deposit can be held by a landlord to cover rent in the event that you are behind on your payments. The amount of the security deposit can vary from one apartment to the next, but in most cases it works out to about the equivalent of a month’s rent.
- Pet fee. If you have a pet, you need to carefully check the apartment rules. Some apartments allow small pets, others do not. Many apartments will require you to pay an additional fee if you own a pet. This is to cover potential damage caused by the pet. A pet fee is usually less than a couple hundred dollars.
- Initial Rent Payment. In some apartments, you’re only going to need to pay the first month’s rent when you sign your lease. In other cases, you may be asked to pay both the first month’s rent payment as well as the last month’s rent payment. Here again, this is a mechanism that protects the landlord if you don’t make your regular rent payments.
- Ongoing Rent Payments. From here, you just need to pay your regular rent. This is your monthly fee that allows you to live in the apartment. You’ll need to make those payments each month for the entire term of the lease.
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