As for rent, every time I signed a new lease the price went up. Apparently, my rent amount on the first lease was a special introductory offer that was below the “market value” of the apartment. Every time I signed a new lease, they raised the rent a little more and a little more with the intention of eventually having me pay the market value for the apartment. The market value ended up being too much to pay for renting, so my wife and I got a house and put that bigger payment toward a mortgage instead. I wish I would’ve signed a 12-month lease and a 6-month lease instead of 3 6-month leases.

So if you’re renting an apartment, make sure you ask whether the cost will remain the same from lease to lease or whether they will raise it to the market value.

~Tiffany

1. Show up when you agreed to show up. 1pm doesn’t mean ‘around’ 1pm or 130pm. We immediately cross off the list anyone who doesn’t have at least the decency to give us a call if they are going to be late.

2. Have your references in order BEFORE you apply. If your employer or landlord requires your written permission to give out info, do that first. Some employers require people calling for references to go to websites and sign up, even sometimes pay. No go on that, you need to make other arrangements.

3. If the place says no pets, that means no pets. No harm in asking, of course. But the time to ask is BEFORE you apply. No LL is going to change his/her mind because spring a pet on them right before lease signing. The only thing that is going to change is you pissing people off.

4. Make sure to ask questions of the LL that are important to you. But don’t paint yourself as a possible ‘high maintenance’ tenant, that will get you crossed off the list FAST. And don’t insult people. If you say the apartment looks like a sty but the LL or manager actually cleaned it (and it is clean, just not YOUR stratospheric level of clean), you’re done.

5. Read your damn lease before you sign it. It isn’t the LL’s responsibility to make sure you do that. But you can bet we will point to it as reason why or why not we do something, just as you would if it were all in YOUR favor.

6. LL’s and managers are not going to answer questions that paint them or their complex unfavorably that they do not have to. Stuff like how the neighborhood is (if it’s bad) or traffic or stuff like that. That’s YOUR homework to do.