YA Blog: What To Expect

What to Expect With Your First Apartment

Jan. 16th 2014 at 9:15 PM | Cara Hemann

What to expect for your first apartment?

Renting your first apartment is a huge step in your life. You become an adult at 18 and are legally able to sign a contract without your parent’s permission. Apartment hunting is not easy, but it should be fun. You search for a place to live, and once you find it, you will sign onto a lease for that place. You could be living alone or with one or more roommates. One of the most important things for your first apartment is to make sure that you understand the lease and all the terms of the lease at the time of signing. You should also expect to make a payment of some sort at the time of signing. We require a security deposit payment and service fee payment.

Understanding the Lease

It is important to remember that the lease is the governing contract between you and your landlord. It sets the expectations for when you will live there (move-in/move-out), how much you will pay and when, and what is permitted in the apartment. If there are issues going forward, your lease will be the place where both parties look for guidance on how to proceed. (Things to keep in mind: does your lease address subleasing? Late fees? Utility allowance? Parking?)

What do you expect after you have signed a lease?

After you have signed the lease, you wait until it is time to move into your first apartment! We start our payments two months prior to move in, so you should expect to be paying rent before you are living in the apartment, but you will finish paying rent prior to your move out date as well. You will pick up your keys on move in day and move into your new place! You can expect that the apartment will be cleaned and ready for move in on your specified date.

What do you expect the apartment to be like?

Everything that comes with your apartment will depend on the price range of where you signed. Young America provides housing to both ends of the economic spectrum and everything in between. Regardless of which end of the price range you reside, you can expect at the majority of our locations that the apartment will come fully furnished and your rent will include certain utilities, along with a certain number of parking spaces.

Living in your first apartment is a new experience. It can be scary, but it should be fun! You have responsibilities now for paying rent and any other bills that you acquire in the apartment. You can expect to be responsible for cleaning your apartment and maintaining its general condition. At some point, odd are something to go wrong with your apartment where you will need service, and we have a great maintenance staff, who will help you with fixing those things. In general, service requests will be handled by your landlord, but anything considered damage would likely be billed back to you. Now, this is your own place and you are out living on your own so decorate your apartment and make it feel like home, and enjoy the freedom responsibly! Please make sure that you return your apartment in the condition you found it.

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