With Renting Season Upon Us Apartments.com Offers Tips for Finding the Right Home

Chicago–According to Apartments.com, May 1 and October 1 one are the busiest moving days of the year, and although the latter date is a few days behind us, tips that the national apartment Internet listing subscription service has just released still apply.

The pool of apartment leasers is growing and it consists not only of those who rent for financial reasons but, as Apartments.com concluded in a recent survey, those who prefer to rent in order to live in neighborhoods that would be inaccessible to them as homebuyers, to have on-site amenities and to avoid the responsibility of property maintenance. Regardless of the motive, Apartments.com notes, relocating is the third most stressful event in a person’s life, but the company has a few recommendations that will ease the process of choosing an apartment and facilitating a desirable living situation.

The anxiety that comes with finding just the right property can be attributed to a few factors, including the challenge of obtaining updated and factual information on apartment communities. However, the availability of correct information is improving. “It is definitely changing,” Chris Brown, vice president of product management with Apartments.com, tells MHN. “Well over half of the properties on our site are updating information on a daily basis and that number is going upward, and a lot are doing daily auto feeds, which is great.”

Roommates make up a significant percentage of apartment leasers. “From the feedback we get, people looking for roommates tend to be the younger demographic–in college or just out of college–or those who prefer the company or the safety of living with someone,” Brown says. But for this crowd, the criteria for orchestrating the most advantageous living situation extend beyond location and amenities.

Apartments.com recommends the following tips from Andrew Prestler, the Apartments.com Roommate of the Year Contest grand prize winner, for achieving a pleasant roommate situation. Prestler’s list of 10 suggestions includes: clean up after yourself; be timely in paying your share of expenses; do not make joint purchases of large items, such as big-screen televisions; provide your roommate with the occasional “alone time;” and avoid dressing in a way that will make your roommate uncomfortable, such as going unclothed. Additionally, Prestler notes the importance of asking before borrowing and promptly discussing any issues that arise.

“Also, based on logic and common decency, take the time to evaluate those things you are looking for in a roommate in advance and make the hard decisions about whether that person is a good fit,” Brown says. “And if that person is a friend, just because you are good friends doesn’t mean you have the same lifestyle; you have to be willing to make that critical evaluation as to whether you are going to mesh–not just as friends, but as roommates.”