here is some rental guidelines that everyone should keep in mind. • Set a realistic budget based on the area. The conventional wisdom is to spend no more than 30 percent of your annual income on housing costs. But given low entry-level salaries and high housing costs, you may need to budget a little more if youre living in expensive urban markets like New York City or San Francisco. It totally depends on where you live, says Ornella Grosz, a speaker and author of Moneylicious: A Financial Clue for Generation Y. You want to have a benchmark, but you dont want to spend your entire paycheck on rent. Websites like Rentometer and RentJungle/comparerent can give you an idea of rents in your target neighborhood so you can budget accordingly. Splitting the rent with roommates can help cut costs, but youll want to screen roommates carefully and make sure theyre people youd actually want to live with, as Grosz puts it. You may like hanging out with friends from college, but that doesnt mean youll enjoy cleaning up their messes or sharing a bathroom. Before signing a lease together, ask prospective roommates how they want to handle chores, guests, bills, and other issues. Once you find a potential apartment, ask about possible rent increases to gauge how quickly you could be priced out of that apartment. Do they anticipate rental prices going up? asks Grosz. How do they justify increases in prices? • Budget for the extras. In addition to paying rent, you may also be responsible for paying bills like electricity, heat, and cable. Odell adjusted her price range once she discovered that some higher-priced apartments included utilities, which made her overall costs lower than paying rent and utilities separately. If youre on the hook for utilities, factor those expenses into your budget. Often, you can find out what the previous tenants paid by calling the utility provider and giving them the address. Of course, your use might be different, points out Bill Deegan, CEO of Renter Nation (formerly the American Tenants Association). • Position yourself as a desirable tenant. Rentals move quickly in competitive markets, so have your references and checkbook ready when you start searching. In some markets, youll be expected to pay a security deposit, first and last months rent, a nonrefundable application fee, and possibly a broker or finders fee before moving in, all of which can amount to several times the monthly rent.
Posted on: Sat, 02 Aug 2014 13:35:39 +0000
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