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What to Look for When Touring an Apartment

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When you're visiting apartments things can get hectic and it's easy to miss some important details. Our advice is to not schedule more than three rental visits in one day. Looking at any more will make things much more difficult to remember when you're trying to make your choice. Use our site and any other sources to narrow the list of apartments you need to visit in person.

A few key details to inspect in any unit you visit are:
  • Check to make sure water comes out of the faucets and shower heads. Don't feel strange turning the shower on. Also make sure that the pressure is good and that the hot water works.
  • Flush the toilet. Make sure it's in good working order.
  • Thin walls? Stop for a moment and listen. Can you hear the traffic? Noise from the hall? The neighbors TV?
  • Unwanted roommates... I'm not talking about some random dude sleeping on the couch. Check the overall cleanliness of the place. Are there crumbs on the counters and shelves? Worse yet do actually see bugs crawling around, or even worse do you see rodent droppings?
  • Turn on all the lights, test the air and heat (if it's got either), is the refrigerator cold, do the burners on the stove work, how about the oven?
  • Visit places during the day. Does the place get enough sun light? Living in a dark cave makes it just that much easier to sleep-in and miss that horribly early 8:30 class (unfortunately a well lit room doesn't even seem to help with a 7:30 class).
  • If you've got a cell phone bring it. Check to make sure you get a decent signal.
Don't forget to bring a pad of paper and a camera. Take notes and shoot a picture or two in each room. These will help you when making comparisons between the places you visit. Plus, if the property doesn't have photos on our site, send them to us and well add them to the listings.

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