Looking for a new apartment should be a fun, exciting experience. The last thing you want to do is feel rushed or pressured to find your new apartment whether that is due to financial reasons, an expiring lease in your current place, or you are relocating because of a job.
If possible, you should start looking for an apartment several months before you need to move.
Sometimes, life doesn’t give you options and you have to do what you can when you can. However, if you can control your situation at all, you are going to have the best experience, and get the best deal, on an apartment when you plan sufficiently ahead.
This time is going to be needed to do the searching you want, the due diligence you need to do on the complex, and for you to make an informed decision about where you want to live.
How Early Should I Apply For An Apartment?
45-60 days before you want to move in is a good time to start the application process for an apartment.
Moving into an apartment isn’t an easy or automatic thing. Yes, the internet has made it much easier to search for what apartment you want to stay in, but it has also made it easier for landlords and managers to do their own checks on tenants as well. If the apartment complex is full or close to capacity, they will be much pickier about who they are going to approve an application for.
If there are only one or two apartment complexes in the area you want to live in, there may not be a vacancy for you to have. Or the apartment complex may be getting an apartment ready from someone else who has just moved out. It is a good decision to not only apply early to the complex you want to stay in but also apply to backups incase your complex of choice has no current opening.
Advantages To Applying For An Apartment Early
YOU AREN’T GOING TO BE FORCED INTO A MAKING A DECISION UNDER PRESSURE – This is one of the biggest benefits to applying WELL before you want, or have to, move.
If you are under the gun, you may be forced to settle for a place that is less-than-ideal. You may have to rent an apartment that is way above, or below, your budget. Either way can be a bad situation.
Giving yourself time also lets the manager or landlord know that you aren’t under pressure of your own making to just take whatever they have. You are not going to get the best deal possible if the landlord knows, or you tell them, that you will take anything.
LETTING THE LANDLORD KNOW YOU WON’T TAKE JUST ANYTHING – Which brings me to my next point. With few exceptions, the vast majority of people who want to get into an apartment RIGHT NOW, have something in their immediate past that screams “red flags”.
The exceptions to this are what I have seen with people who have been transferred suddenly for work. Even then, most employers are going to give the employee at least a month to make arrangements for this exact reason. They know that leaving a place and moving into another place isn’t something that typically happens overnight.
Many times the people that I come across that want to rent an apartment immediately are renters who have just gotten evicted from their last place, kicked out of a relative’s place, or have just broken up with their significant other. None of these situations bodes well for making good, long-term decisions.
Landlords know this because they have seen everything under the sun. Even if they have several units that they want to rent, they would much rather approve and accept someone who has good references and says they want to move in a month or so from now. They see that these renters are planning ahead and doing the work they need to do ahead of time to secure someplace to stay.
APPLYING TO MORE THAN ONE APARTMENT COMPLEX – When you are under the gun, you are more apt to just take anything that comes along or is easy. When you have time to do the research, you are going to get a MUCH better apartment in the end.
Being accepted to more than one apartment complex is going to benefit you immensely when you go in for the interview and to walk through the apartment complex with the landlord. If they know that you have been approved at multiple places, and are considering your options, they are much more likely to sweeten the deal with parking slot, storage, or preferred choice of unit, than if you are coming in looking desperate.
By applying to multiple complexes, landlords are also going to know that you more than likely have a good rental and credit history and your background check is going to come up clean. Landlords are going to be predisposed to bending over backward for you, rather than the other way around.
How Long Does It Take To Find An Apartment?
The advent of the internet has made apartment searching easy and convenient.
It can literally take you less than 15 minutes to find an apartment, the bigger time concern is with the application process.
Just like looking for a hotel online, you can do it in a matter of minutes. Just put in your search criteria, where you are looking at, what amenities they have, what your budget range is, and whatever search site you are on is going to give you all your options in a matter of seconds.
That’s the easy part.
The more time-consuming part is the application process and the in-person walkthrough.
Expect the application process to take 2-3 days at a minimum. This is because the complex is likely to do a background and credit check on you, as well as follow up with references that you provided on your application.
On top of that, if there are more applicants in front of you, they are going to sift through those applications as they come in. They don’t know you are the perfect tenant until they actually go through your application. And because humans are involved, this is just going to take some time.
The last reason that finding a good apartment isn’t an overnight thing is that you are going to want to do your own due diligence in whatever apartment you apply for.
This means actually going to the apartment complex, setting up an appointment with the landlord, and having them give you a walkthrough of the complex, and the exact apartment you would be renting. This prevents any “bait and switch” opportunities from happening to you as a tenant and allows you to get a good feel for the complex that you applied for.
What Are The Best Months Of The Year To Apply For An Apartment?
The months you are most likely to get a deal on an apartment is between January and March.
Why is this? Pretty simple, really. People don’t like to do a lot of moving when it is cold outside. Now, this might be a bit overstated if you live in Miami, Florida, but for people in Minneapolis, Minnesota, or anywhere it can get cold really, it is much easier to move, and get your friend and family to HELP you move when it isn’t a blizzard outside.
Because of the relative slow down of move-ins for apartment complexes during these months, you are more likely to get a landlord to give you a deal, a discount, or throw in some amenity like parking or storage if you commit to moving in during these months.
The landlord always wants to have their complex filled, and during the slow months, like any other business, they are much more likely to wheel and deal with you than in the middle of the summer or before fall when more people are on the move.
Should I Apply To More Than One Apartment?
You should absolutely apply to more than one apartment complex.
There are a couple of reasons for this. The first reason is that it keeps your options open. There is nothing worse than having to live somewhere you don’t want to live. Being forced into an apartment for a year or more out of necessity is the last position you want to put yourself in.
So, do yourself a favor and apply early and often. Yes, applications cost money, but they aren’t as expensive as having to stay somewhere 12 months you don’t want to stay.
The second reason is that it gives you leverage when you go for the interview and walkthrough with the landlord. When the landlord knows you are considering their complex along with others, that puts you in the driver’s seat during the negotiation.
You want to be the party with the choices on where you want to stay, not the other way around. You want your future landlord to want YOU.
Applying to several places allows you to get to know the market, the landlords, and your future apartment.
You are going to have your best results in apartment hunting when you apply 45-60 days out and start your search for apartments even sooner than that. That time will give you an ample window to search for what you are looking for in an apartment, do your due diligence and walkthrough, complete the applications process, and finally choose what apartment you want on your terms.
