1. Research apartments in your local area or the area you want to live. Look online at realtor sites in the rental sections and build up an idea of what kind of monthly rental prices will get you what kind of apartment, and in which area.
You probably already have an idea of good and bad neighborhoods; rent tends to be cheaper in the "bad" spots but find out the broad range of rent and figure out what you can compromise on.
Online research is great these days because you often get to see photos of the actual apartment on offer, or ones like it.
2. Armed with the information you now have about costs and what is affordable, establish next what some of these places are asking in terms of a security deposit or other upfront expenses and payments. Do they also want an upfront payment of "first and last month's rent"?
It's important to find out what the upfront payments will be, in addition to what your normal monthly rent payment is. It's easy to focus on the per-month cost llisted for a rental and forget that the landlord might ask for huge payments right at the start also.
3. Once you have gained an idea of your area's general monthly rents plus what your initial payments might be, you have a numbers plan. Your upfront costs are something you will now budget to save toward so that there are no surprises you can't afford, and your monthly guestimate for the type of place you can afford will be what you need to figure as part of any income that you have.
Bear in mind some apartment managers or landlords require that your rent not exceed a certain percentage of your income, like 15% or 30%.
Most people are actually struggling with a much higher percentage than that, but when you first rent a place, it's often something they look into and get concerned about, so keep that in mind when figuring out what you can afford.
As to how to save your money -- examine all the expenses you have at the moment, and figure out where you can make any cuts. Think of everything you spend your money on, from the smallest -- some people buy a Starbucks every single lunchtime -- to the biggest: paying off college loans, a car payment, etc.
Even if you regularly buy gum or beers, make a list or spreadsheet of every way in which money leaves you, and be brutal with what you could cut down on or even eliminate. Even pennies saved here and there can actually add up to a lot of cash over a period of time, it's surprising. Get a savings account and whatever you used to spend on the things you spend less on since making your list, put that amount into the account.
Other things: use the online banking tool that "saves the change" -- the one that rounds up any debit card transaction to the nearest dollar and puts that change into your savings account, like groceries came to $14.20 and your account puts that 80c into the savings account. Again it doesn't sound like much, but it's surprising how all those pennies build up into cash.
17 Oct 2016, 1:50 pm
