Renting

Is it appropriate to ask my landlord to pay for an appliance that broke in my new apartment? My window A/C unit was fried because a previous tenant decided to DIY some of the electrical wiring in the apartment without notifying the landlord. Here’s a little background: I installed my window A/C unit in my new apartment. I bought the unit two years ago, having saved up and researched the most cost and energy efficient model. The unit fried as soon as I turned it on.

What does a basement closet in Brooklyn have to do with an exotic animal-laden ranch in Colombia? They both live in the Netflix universe, of course. ForRent.com compiled a list of some of the most memorable properties of Netflix Originals characters, and determined how much it would cost to rent them. Whether you’re in the market for a sprawling Hollywood Hills mansion or a small apartment above a Chinese restaurant, here’s a look at some of Netflix’s most iconic properties.

Despite being a writer, I’m not a natural over-sharer. The words flow freely enough when I’m talking about design, but I’m much more guarded in my own life. But I realized that most advice is inherently personal and comes from experience, so once I overcame the icky feeling, I knew it was time to write about being robbed. Becoming a statistic isn’t so bad, I figure, if I can help someone else avoid it.

On January 24th, “Broad City” returns to Comedy Central for its fifth and final season. For the last five years, viewers have watched Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer play fictional versions of themselves trying to navigate New York City as 20-something women. We have watched this story play out in many different ways on television, from shows like “Friends,” to “Sex and the City,” to “Gossip Girl,” to “The Bold Type.

With the release on Team Coco of 25 years of show clips, we took a look back into some of our favorite bits from Conan O’Brien’s past. One of our favorites is this one, where Conan goes alongside show writer Andy Blitz (you may remember him as one-third of the Slipnutz, the group of guys that slipped on nuts). It’s a funny look at how apartment hunting in cities is generally a painful experience…and how much prices have changed in New York.

Last year, HGTV shelled out $3.5 million to get its hands on a nostalgic piece of famous TV real estate, but here’s another opportunity to live in another “Brady Bunch” house – as a tenant. Located in Studio City, the owners are looking to rent the property for $12,500 a month. Fans of the popular ’70s sitcom know the Fryman Canyon Estates residence as the home Mike Brady shared with his three sons before uniting with Carol and her three very lovely girls.

Think the tiny home trend is adorable—but more so in an aspirational kind of way? Instead of committing to downsizing your life into 300 square feet (or less!), you can give the trend a test run at one of these tiny home hotels. These five resorts excel when it comes to cozy and quaint getaways. The best part? They’re pretty affordable, too, with rates starting at $75 a night. The newest tiny home hotel to make its grand (or petite?

Whether you’ve just signed your first lease (yay!) or you’ve been renting for a while, you know that home decor updates can be limited. Not all landlords will allow you to paint a room a brilliant poppy red or knock out a wall for more natural light.

No doubt, credit can be confusing. Not only are there various factors that make up the anatomy of your credit score, there are also different credit scoring companies. Making things even more convoluted, achievements like paying off your student loans can actually cause a drop in your scores, plus there’s plenty of myths circulating about credit. Suffice to say, people have a lot of questions about credit.

​If you’ve ever wanted to walk through a pair of mint doors and yell, “Lucy, I’m home,” you don’t have to build a time machine to do it.

So your credit’s shot due to some past troubles with bill-paying or credit card debt. Does this mean you’ll never be able to rent an apartment again? Not necessarily. “We are oftentimes at a crossroads when it comes to dealing with prospective tenants with bad credit,” says Robert Rahmanian, co-founder of REAL NY, a Manhattan real estate brokerage company.

As a homeowner (or renter), you might have heard of radon: an invisible, odorless, and dangerous gas that’s formed when uranium is broken down over time (this, by the way, is called radioactive decay). The rocks and soil underneath all of our homes have traces of uranium—but what does that mean for our homes? I asked a couple of experts and here’s what they say everyone should know about radon gas. Technically, we’re already exposed to radon. According to the U.S.

When my partner, Devin, got hired on as the on-site manager at our 33-unit apartment building in Seattle, he received a quick demo of the clunky, crash-prone software used to track rent payments, a key to the maintenance closet, a pamphlet from the 1960s explaining how to program the building’s callbox, and a pat on the back from ownership.

So you’ve decided to rent out your pad to earn some extra cash. Depending on where you live, you can stand to make a hefty profit by making your home available for rental through services like Airbnb and VRBO. Before you dive in, though, it’s crucial that you come prepared. There’s more to being a successful host on these popular vacation rental sites than meets the eye, and if you want your property to stand out, presentation is key.

Like millions of Americans who graduated with more than $50,000 in student loan debt, I knew it’d be a serious challenge to start my career living in pricey Washington D.C. and pay off my loans. Recent stats show the District’s median rental cost for a one-bedroom apartment is an eye-popping $2,121. At the time, I was only earning $12/hour as a radio station assistant and an unreliable-but-similar rate nannying in the afternoon.

How does moving to a brand new city sound? For some zodiac sun signs, like Cancers, it might sound terrible, as they’re prone to staying close to their family and are nostalgic for the “old neighborhood.” (Though, it might be a great experience for them to get out of their shells a bit!) “They are the homebodies of the zodiac,” explains Jenna Smith of My Stars! Horoscopes. “Once they get nestled into a place, they don’t want to leave.

On the fence about homeownership? There are many factors that should go into your decision to rent or buy property—and not all of them are purely financial. Perhaps you’re not sure if you’re going to stay in your current city long-term. And, hey, it’s pretty nice to be able to call your landlord when something needs fixing. But for many, the ultimate decision comes down to dollars and cents.

You saved up that down payment—and those extra closing costs. The furniture has been bought and the rooms have been painted. You’ve sent the movers a deposit and even paid your first mortgage payment! You’re past the most stressful financial part of homeownership, right? Not so fast. A large portion of American homeowners say they’re still facing financial anxiety—even after move-in day.

Living in New York City brings its fair share of rewards and challenges. For me, the biggest continuous struggle—even after almost a decade in NYC—was doing laundry (#blessed, I know). When I lived in Brooklyn, my building had a basement laundry room, but it was creepy down there and I learned the hard way that the super locked the room at 9 p.m.—with my wet clothes trapped overnight in a washing machine.

You’ve probably seen a good amount of Oscar- and Emmy-worthy homes in your lifetime: “Home Alone,” “The Truman Show,” “Father of the Bride,” “Breaking Bad,” and “This Is Us” just being a small handful of them. But did you ever realize that these houses on screen are people’s actual homes? Many movie-worthy homes are rented out everyday for photoshoots, movies, TV, and music videos by production companies.

To live in New York City is to crack your wallet way open every month to pay for a roof over your head. And while once upon a time $2,300 per month could yield a perfectly reasonable place to call home, these days it takes some sleuthing to find something in this price range.

They say everything is bigger in Texas, even—nay especially—the boots. Case in point: There’s a cowboy boot so large you can live in it. And it’s available for rent. Located in Huntsville, a city about an hour north of Houston, the footwear inspired house and the adjoining bungalow were designed and built by local artist Dan Phillips, who specializes in constructing homes with recycled and salvaged materials.

Wondering what the former President and First Lady have been up to after their much-memed Tropical vacation on Richard Branson’s private island? Well, the answer is house-hunting. Fortunately, for the Obamas, they didn’t have to hunt very far before finding their new dream home. Ok, so “new” might not be entirely the right word. See, the Obamas just purchased the DC-area home they’ve been renting since leaving the White House.

Even if you read your lease line-by-line (you deserve a juris doctorate!) when you signed, you’d probably like clarification on some policies and have some questions about your rental—whether you’ve resigned twice or just moved in. Have there ever been bed bugs? Ghosts? If my lease ends at the end of the month, what’s the absolute latest time I can move out? What’s my best option for pizza delivery?! Speaking of deliveries, where do my Amazon Prime packages go?

In almost all circumstances, a landlord or property manager will run your credit before renting out a place to you. But, what credit score is ideal for tenants and what’s the lowest three-digit number landlords deem acceptable? The truth is, there’s some mystery shrouding this question. Unlike the home-buying process, where formal charts will help you figure out what rates you’ll qualify for based, in large part, on your credit score, landlords operate at their own discretion.

If you’ve got your eye on a dream apartment—or any apartment, actually—you want to make sure you position yourself as a top-notch renter. Chances are, you’ll be competing with several other would-be tenants for a rental unit, which, of course, is stating the obvious for anyone who has apartment hunted (scavenged?) in places like New York City or Los Angeles.

Think Home Depot is just for suburbanites working on DIY projects or shopping for a washer/dryer? Ask long-time urbanites-who-rent and they’ll tell you that there are so many gems in this big-box store. In fact, many of the things you’d order from Amazon or pick up at Target for your place can be found at Home Depot—and with a better selection (and sometimes better prices).

If you’re in the market for a small apartment—whether it’s your choice or not!—rest easy. Small living is trending and, anyway, who needs all that extra space? More room, more collected clutter! That said, there are a few fundamental attributes of a space that, while small in size, can actually feel larger than a floor plan can make it appear. We asked the experts for what to look for when shopping small.

Do you dream of a future with a yard and a white picket fence? One where you’re not writing away 30 percent of your salary to your landlord every month? Being able to buy a home is a big part of what we’re sold as “The American Dream,” but it’s not for everyone. Renting an apartment forever is absolutely an option, and a damn good one.

We’ve all seen the ads: Rent a unit in our building and you’ll get access to amazing common areas! Dog spas! Bike storage! Real estate companies and landlords will toss in freebies until the cows come home to ensure you sign a lease. However, nothing lures prospective renters in as much as the appearance of a serious dent in their rent. But “appears” is the key word here.

If you’re budget-conscious, you might think purchasing renters insurance is a luxury you can’t afford—especially if your landlord doesn’t require you to hold it. But like most insurance, it can pay dividends when the unexpected occurs and your valuables are lost, stolen, damaged, or destroyed–and much more besides.

Feel like, as a renter, the world swings in favor of homeowners? Well, it just might. A new study by Apartment List found that renters are vastly underrepresented in American politics on both the local and national levels. Though some of it is systematic, some also comes from being disengaged. In the 2016 presidential election, while 67 percent of homeowners voted, only 49 percent of renters did.

Feeling like it’s time to size up your space? By all means, do it. But know that it’s going to likely require a bigger investment month-to-month, and probably drain your change right now as you scramble to pay for moving costs and the other expenses that inevitably creep up when you decide to pick up your roots and settle down in a new spot.

There are generally three categories of agents who list and show apartments: brokers to whom renters pay a fee, no-fee brokers, and apartment owners who take care of the job themselves. You probably know that the best deals are usually found in owner-listed situations. Since there’s no broker to middleman the process and demand tribute, both owner and renter can save money.

A couple years back, the New York Times published an article about the 13 questions you should always ask someone before getting married. Which got me thinking about another kind of relationship, one possibly even more fraught than marriage, and one that people enter into with perhaps even more unwarranted optimism: that between roommates. Here are a list of 11 questions you really ought to be asking your potential roommate, before you move in.

I have had some bonkers roommate experiences in my short 25 years of life. From waking up to a roommate watching me sleep repeatedly for months in a small dorm space, to another roommate going on a three-day blackout drinking binge, I’ve grown accustomed to compiling my own personal list of “roommate horror stories.” Hence, when I was able to find an affordable micro-studio in Seattle for the last few months of my undergraduate studies, I jumped on the opportunity.

Before I moved into my current apartment, I thought I did a good amount of research: I’d cranked out the numbers for my budget, called around to multiple agents and buildings, and went on plenty of apartment tours. Despite all this, I was shocked at what the market held for me—though Omaha, Nebraska, has been named one of the most affordable cities in the country, most of the townhomes and apartments I’d loved so much were still out of my budget.

If you’ve been searching for a new house or apartment, you’ve likely already encountered some exaggerated listings. Whether it’s ad copy that stresses the home’s soaring city views or sneakily staged photos, some listings look better on the MLS than they are IRL. But you can cut through the clutter if you know what to ignore. Read on for seven listing red flags you should know about, according to real estate experts.

This piece is run with an anonymous byline as a courtesy to the writer, as the post could affect their ability to obtain housing. In my first apartment out of college, my roommate and I rented a well-maintained, spacious apartment with a built-in cabinet, hardwood floors, and an original clawfoot tub. We fell in love with its charm and the rent was pretty affordable. The building was a two-flat that the landlord had lived in for over 30 years.

Living in New York City often means expensive rent and little space, but sometimes apartments here are…an experience, to say the least. It seems like everyone lives in a building that has its quirks—things like strange-but-creative ways of fitting appliances in, weird structural features, odd smells, and more. Even the best apartments—the ones no one would dare give up their leases on—have their own interesting shortcomings.

Entering the real estate business with the purpose of earning passive income certainly isn’t a novel idea. However, the inventive folks over at Wisconsin’s ESCAPE have placed a creative twist on the popular investment tactic in the form of the company’s “Free ESCAPE Tiny House Program,” which allows participants to profit off tiny dwellings. The way the program works is ESCAPE lends out free tiny homes to people who agree to share a portion of the rental proceeds.

If you live in a majorly cramped city, you know that space is definitely at a premium. Dreams of moving into a bigger, more airy space might pop into your head when all the crap you’ve shoved into your only closet falls out for the millionth time. But if more space is what you’re looking for, there is actually a stupidly simple way to solve this problem on the cheap: Rent a storage unit.

Why bring that negative energy into your new home?

For doorman-building devotees, there’s nothing like seeing a familiar face on the way in and out of that place you call home. But for others, there’s nothing worse than having to chit chat with this person—or having him know your business. For those lucky enough to have the option, the decision is of personal preference.

It’s my third time moving in Los Angeles, and I haven’t even lived here for four years. That means I’ve spent more time on Craigslist, Zillow, Trulia, Rent.com, and Rental Girl than I want to know. I even have rental alerts that ping me once they’ve found a “match” that meets all of my dream home criteria (I haven’t disabled it because apartment hunting is one of my favorite hobbies #noshame).

Here’s a riddle for renters: Say your lease expires on October 31. Do you need to move out on October 31 and keep your stuff in storage until November 1, or can you actually move out November 1, giving yourself a little wiggle room? The short answer: It varies depending on your management company or landlord, says agent Alex Lavrenov, of Warburg Realty in New York, New York.

When my ex, Sarah, moved into her new home on a beautiful tree-lined street in the middle of one of Toronto’s most charming and historical neighborhoods, I began a months-long search for a place nearby. Even though we didn’t have any children together, it was an absolute priority for the both of us that I move within walking distance.

If you’re wondering what it takes to be able to afford to live alone in one of the top 20 populated cities in the United States, check out this list.

If your friend just bought a house, it’s hard not to feel a pang of jealousy over the fact that she either won the lottery, received a sizable inheritance, or was gifted cash for a down payment. And then there’s that fabulous backsplash and gorgeous front yard she keeps talking about. But no matter how she amassed the pile of cash, your friend’s foray into homeownership can test a friendship, especially if you’re finding it hard to make rent.

Apartment viewings kind of make no sense when you think about it. If you live in New York, like I do, an apartment viewing is about a 10-15 minute period in which you’re supposed to ask a couple questions, look around for any big problems, and then leave to see another apartment. Most of the time, since apartments come and go so fast, you only have one meeting to make your decision—or you risk losing it to someone who moved faster.

​It’s easy to get caught up in square footage or closet space when looking for an apartment, but there are some other less obvious things that are just important to consider.

Finding an apartment you absolutely adore and want to stay in is a rare and special thing in the rental market today. But, unfortunately, a renter’s desire to stay put isn’t always enough to make it a reality. “With increasing rents, building conversions (to condominium), building sales, and other reasons, landlords look to get tenants out of properties early,” says Mark Hakim, an attorney with SSRGA in New York City.

You’ve seen those fancy gizmos in suburban sinks—those garbage disposals that suck down each and every coffee ground or lettuce leaf you don’t need, making it next to unnecessary to make countless runs to your building’s refuse bin. But despite all the modern luxuries of living in New York City, garbage disposals are actually pretty rare.

When living conditions are unacceptable, do you have enough of a legal leg to stand on to break your lease? Turns out it’s all about the fine print.

Applying for an apartment is hard. First you have to find one that’s moderately nice and within your price range, and then you have to get all of your documents together really, really fast. This would be easy if you were organized and had time set away to sort through your papers. But this is life and we’re not as organized as we’d like to be; it’s likely that you have a job and thus have limited time to collect your bank statements from the last six months.

I move a lot. Because of the nature of my job (freelance writer), I was in five countries over three continents this month. I have to pack, unpack, and move rooms every few days. When I’m on an assignment, I usually stay in a hotel. When I’m not, I often stay with my sweet, accommodating partner who has rearranged his entire bedroom to create a writing nook for me. But even he knows what I long for. It’s not a hotel or a nice apartment with designer furniture.

Six years after applying with my partner, I won an apartment in the NYC Affordable Housing Lottery—a unicorn most folks actually know little about.

Maybe you hear seemingly constant fighting and crying through the walls. Or someone is hollering upstairs for a concerningly long time. Or the guy across the hall has suddenly gone radio silent and his mailbox is overflowing. Now, the big question: Are you overthinking or does your neighbor really need help?

It doesn’t matter how much you smash that piggy bank—your first home is going to be really expensive and it’s going to take a long time to save up for that down payment on your own. According to a new study from HotPads, most renters will spend nearly six and a half years saving to put a down payment on a home. Since the median home price in the United States is $216,000, the average 20-percent down payment comes out to $43,200.

Much like dating, searching for a place to live can be the opposite of fun. In love, you’ve got to kiss a lot of frogs. In realty, you’ve got to scroll through a lot of listings. Both, in their own way, pose the risk of catfishing. But at least if you get duped by an embellished Tinder profile, the worst that usually happens is a bad date (which you can get through with the help of a drink or two!

Television isn’t known for treating viewers to reality. Even “reality” TV is far from what fans experience in the real world: Not everyone can sit around, look fabulous, and get paid like the Kardashians. And though some shows “get it” (we see you Atlanta, Malcolm in the Middle, and Broad City), fictional television tends to be regularly outrageous in the living department: Many characters live lavishly in amazing homes with a pretty standard income.

In a perfect world, your neighbors would be as lovable as Joey and Chandler, as kooky as Kramer, or as beloved as Fred and Ethel. But, in reality, you don’t have to be BFFs to establish great relationships with the folks living next door or down the hall.

If you live in a major city and don’t make six-figures, you probably live with one or more roommates. And, of course, you probably wish every day that you could move to the middle of nowhere—where rents are cheap—and live alone. Well, surprise! Those dreams will probably never come true, because apartments throughout the country just aren’t as affordable as you think they are.

According to the following four real estate professionals, there are several acceptable interpretations of this phrase.

One of the most sought-after features in real estate today is “open concept.” But, like many popular buzzwords, people seem to mean different things when they use it. So we decided to talk with some real estate professionals to break down what open concept really means, how it originated, and why it’s so appealing.

If your standard reaction to watching HGTV is, “I want to do that, too,” but renovating a fixer-upper is out of your budget (and your skill set), there’s a new virtual way you can satisfy that renovation itch—without having to take out a mortgage or hire a contractor.