Long-distance Apartment Hunting Made Easy

November 29, 2006 | By Alissa AuthorMy First Apartment

Looking for housing long-distance is hard—especially if you don’t trust things you can’t touch—but thanks to the World Wide Web, it’s not as impossible as you might think. The Web is now where you start researching the city to which you’re heading. And, you know, there are a ton of terrific sites out there set…

Credit Scores and How I Lost My Dream Apartment

November 17, 2006 | By Alissa AuthorMy First Apartment

If you were to ask me a year ago what a credit rating was, I would have mocked you for you watching too much late night TV. Maybe I would have told you to go buy a suit and on the way, pick me up some Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. After all, I was still living…

How long will it take to find your first apartment?

November 9, 2006 | By MFA Editors AuthorMy First Apartment

You have saved enough for the security deposit and first month rent. Your paperwork is in order: latest payroll stub, letter from your employer stating your dates of employment and maybe even saying a few nice words, and a copy of your latest bank statement. You have checked your credit rating and it is clean.…

Understanding Your Lease Obligations

October 8, 2006 | By MFA Editors AuthorMy First Apartment

Our site has a new friend who is a professional real estate consultant. She has agreed to share her tips on navigating the terms on your lease. Signing on the dotted line… What your lease really means By Lori Snider, Principal, Creativity for Rent and Marketing Expert Congratulations! Your search was successful and you’ve found…

What You Should Know about Using a Rental Broker

September 15, 2006 | By Kate AuthorMy First Apartment

Using a fee broker to find your first apartment should be your last resort, but sometimes you may not have a choice, especially if you are moving to a new city that has a low vacancy rate, such as New York. When you’re searching for a pad, you’ll probably start out with Craigslist and other…

Five Lessons from My Search

September 11, 2006 | By Kate AuthorMy First Apartment

When I first moved to California, I wasn’t sure what city I wanted to stay in. I lived like a nomad for months, camping on friends’ couches in a few different cities and assessing the territory before deciding where I finally wanted to settle. I eventually decided to stay in Los Angeles, partially because I…

A Few More Internet Resources

September 9, 2006 | By Kate AuthorMy First Apartment

Below, as promised, are a few resources to help you navigate rental real estate in your region. Apartmentratings.com allows you to search and provide ratings of specific buildings, in the area code or region that you’d like to live in. People dish about where they’ve lived and looked, filling you in on both fabulous and…

NYC at last

September 8, 2006 | By Kelly AuthorMy First Apartment

Well, it’s been an interesting summer. In my last entry, I believe I had been rejoicing about finally finding a place that I could afford and everything was looking up. Unfortunately, the Morningside Heights/Upper West Side place fell through 24 hours before I was supposed to drive up there, so I spent my summer lamenting,…

Five Six Things to Do Before You Move In

September 6, 2006 | By Kate AuthorMy First Apartment

1. Document any problems with the apartment with photographs and detailed descriptions so that you have no problem getting your security deposit back when you move out. Give a copy of this list to your landlord (this may even prompt him or her to make a few more repairs!) 2. Turn on your utilities. Nobody…

Moving Tips

July 6, 2006 | By Jessica AuthorMy First Apartment

Well, I’m all settled into my new apartment in Chicago. I’ve been here for about a week and a half, and I’m finally catching my breath long enough to report here on how the move went. I had hoped to post some photos of my apartment, but I seem to have misplaced my digital camera’s…