Q&A Tuesday: Advice for first-time renters?

To echo what several others have already said – make sure you get a timeframe for when your landlord will return your security deposit IN WRITING before signing anything. We got into a really ugly situation with our landlord after we bought our house. We had to threaten to take him to Small Claims Court because he claimed that we broke the air conditioning unit even though it was working when we left.

It was ridiculous, especially considering we left the place in MUCH better condition than when we moved in! I cleaned the place from top to bottom (even the refrigerator, freezer, oven, and stovetop burners) and we paid to have the walls painted (the same shade that was already on them). He was just playing dirty.

We did end up getting $450 of our $550 deposit back, but we should have gotten all of it. We didn’t end up taking him to Small Claims Court, because it wasn’t worth our time for $100. The moral of the story is, get everything in writing so you won’t have to deal with this situation.

We too sold our house and downsized to an apartment for 6 months before moving into a rental house. We had a storage unit while living in the apartment because we needed a place to store our outdoor and garage items. My husband is a “Mr. Fix It” and our apartment was on the third floor. We found a storage unit that was within 5 minutes of our apartment and we did not just throw things in it – we made a point to keep it as organized and easy to get around in as possible – we also made sure every box was labeled. The storage complex was also very secure with 24 hour monitoring, completely gated requiring a code to enter and you were allowed to provide you own lock. We made sure that our Renters Insurance also covered the storage unit as well.

As for our apartment living experience – I would probably live in a trailer before I lived in an apartment again. Our girls were 3 and 18 months old when we moved in. Even though this was a “family friendly”complex the man living below us had absolutely no tolerance for children at any time of the day or night and would come up to our door at 10 in the MORNING and tell me that he could hear us walking around and that I needed to keep my children still…… you know like just have them sit and watch TV, and was constantly pounding on the ceiling when ever the girls would get up in the night. It was the most stressful 6 months of our lives and even though we had a long chat with management and the harassing stopped we still were no comfortable there and were so thankful to move out!

Renting a house means more privacy and a yard and for us a garage and basement so we no longer need a storage unit. The house is actually smaller in living space but the “on site” storage makes it worth it and me children are free to play in the middle of the day in the living room without fear of the man downstairs coming up to yell at mommy again.

Definitely downsize your belongings instead of renting a storage unit. I guarantee you, with two small kids and an off-site unit, you will never get anything out of there. If it gives you some comfort, set aside 1 month’s storage rent as an oops account to rebuy things you find you really did need. And don’t toss anything without opening it. Only last week I found my social security card in an envelope I was about to toss.

Also, be aware that neighborhoods aren’t as friendly to renters as they are to home owners. I’m not at all saying they’re unfriendly, but renters are seen as temporary and the renters themselves often keep to themselves rather than trying to be a part of the neighborhood. So folks are less likely to drop-in and introduce themselves to new renters are they are to new homeowners. If you rent a house you may have to make more of an effort to meet neighbors and be a part of things.

As for discrimination, in some areas landlords can be more choosy when they are living in one of the units. They still can’t discriminate based on sex, religion, race, etc. But they can choose not to rent to a family.

We found our apartment by driving through the area we wanted to live in. (That’s how we found our house as well). And be sure to trust your instincts. If anything seems off to you, keep looking. Your landlord is someone you will be having an ongoing business relationship with who has keys to your home.

This is tough to explain so bear with me: if you rent a single unit house it may not be well suited to renting. We rented a house from someone who wasn’t able to sell it. Great house. Great landlord. But since the house was never set-up as a rental there were some frustrating situations. All the bedrooms lacked overhead lights. There was an outlet linked to the light switch but it was always in an awkward place that did not light the room well. Since we were temporary renters I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on temporary fixes. Same went for curtains in the living room and closet storage in all the bedrooms. I can’t give you any specific advice for avoiding this situation, and I’m not recommending you do. It’s just something to keep in mind when you’re looking at places like that.

We rent because we can’t afford a down payment on a house, nor could we afford the inevitable costs of repairs and maintenance on a house. We rent a three-bedroom townhome, and the good things about it are that we don’t have to do yard work or pay for repairs. Also, there’s a large courtyard in front of our house, where the kids can play with other kids from the neighborhood. I do miss the privacy of a one-family house, though. Fortunately, we are on the end of a row of townhomes, so we have neighbors on only one side of our walls.

One thing to think about when considering renting a house from a private owner instead of an apartment or a condo or a townhome is that a house might be more likely to be sold or foreclosed on or something. I’ve had a few friends who’ve been in that situation, and then they had to move. One family lived in a small town and had a very difficult time finding a new place to live when the house they were renting was sold.

As a landlord, I always tell our renter to be sure they have renter’s insurance for their possessions. Our insurance only covers our property.

We have been renting for a bit now. We started in a house with a garage and used the garage as storage space. We had a garage sale and were able to pare our things down slowly over a year. We now live in an apartment and pay for some storage. (It is so inconvenient, but it was a must.) Given a choice, I would highly recommend the house with garage. Even if you pay a tad more, you’re saving on storage and can use the opportunity to make some extra cash on garage sale/consignment sale items. We moved to save on utilities and travel expenses as my husband works across town now. I miss our little house with the garage!

One other note, be sure to take utilities into consideration. Older houses are cute but are badly insulated and sometimes have only gas utilities. We are saving over a hundred dollars a month now just because we’re in a nicely insulated, all electric apartment.

I’ve owned a home in the past…but now we rent. My husband and I got transferred for his temporary job assignment (3 year contract) last year. We started with a generic apartment complex and now are in a house rental. The apartment complex was fine enough, but we did suffer a little on those weekends were nearby tenants had noisy parties. We also picked the complex because of the additional security it offered, but then no one bothered to shut the walk-up gates and the management left the drive-thru gates open quite often. The bonuses were the quick repairs by management and the pool. With our house, we could not have an open-end lease – they wanted 1.5 years max lease, and an individual landlord is going to have those kinds of little issues that you won’t get with an apartment complex. On the other hand, we have a ton more space to spread out…for nearly the same price as our complex rent. If you rent a house, make sure you know who is responsible for what, like the yard and things like that (we negotiated out of the yard thing). During several recent storms, I was afraid a tree was going to fall through our house (not at our expense, but I would still be in a house with a tree in it)…never had to worry about that before in any other apartment! Our utilities with a house are nearly 3x what we paid in our smaller apartment. Also, our landlord has been dragging his feet on replacing the defunct dishwasher…going on two weeks now. For our next place, since we have to move by the end of the year, we are going to try for a high rise rental (whether apartment building or condo complex). And here is why: security (something about taking an elevator and having a doorman makes me feel better), ease of parking versus apartment door, more amenities (than your typical, generic rental complex), probably fewer noisy tenants (it’s harder to have a party on the 25th floor with a small balcony than a place where you can spill out into the parking lot) and less worries about home ownership-type problems. If I had to do it all over again, I would not have gone the route of renting a home with an individual landlord. The space is AWESOME, but all the other headaches exceed that plus.