Unlike a private home or condo, apartment living is less private. In order to find a situation that affords you a long term happy experience, there are just a few simple rules for finding an apartment. Young, old, or in between, the following criteria should help guide you in the right direction in securing an apartment situation you’ll love.

Foremost in your considerations is your budget. You need to determine what your income will sustain. Finding an appartment is easy. Finding one you can afford is another story. It’s safe to assume that you can afford to spend 25% of your income on housing.

It’s easy to assume that you can afford $50 more than that, but it’s safer to sharpen your pencil and list all of your expenses in a realistic manner. You may find an apartment that is everything you’d like to have, but exceeds that 25% by a mere $50. Either you cut other expenses by that much, or pass. Be sure you can afford the deposit as well.

You need to examine the location. Don’t rent an apartment in a seedy location unless you’re prepared to live with crime or danger. If you’re new to an area, do some research on the neighborhood. Before you go see the apartment, walk or drive around the neighborhood and assess the residents and facilities.

Part of the enjoyment or drawbacks of any apartment includes amenities or lack thereof. Again, finding an apartment to rent is easy. The apartment advertised in the paper may be beautiful, but if you absolutely despise going to the laundromat and your building doesn’t have one, you won’t like it for long.

If you’re a single or student, on a limited budget, finding an apartment for rent suitable to your taste may be more difficult. Going in with a roommate can ease the monthly expenses and up-front costs. This criteria is more subjective, but warrants a great deal of thought before jumping into a situation which you may regret.

If your fellow apartment seeker is your best friend of many years standing, this might be a good move. If your potential roommate is a more casual acquaintance, think carefully. If your apartment mate skips out on the rent, you’re in a bad position. Sublets can be a viable solution, especially if you’re new to an area.

Although this type of situation is short term, it gives you the opportunity to get to know your new city or town well before you make a serious commitment. If you’re short on furniture, this type of arrangement can serve you advantageously. While you sublet someone else’s apartment, you get a chance to collect your resources and gain a sense of your surroundings before finding an apartment of your own.

Finding an apartment situation you’ll be happy with in the long term is no easy undertaking. Considering these points when approaching your search will help you find that perfect spot.

When you’re hunting for an apartment, it’s the nice, but cheap apartments that are the prize. They’re also the ones that are hard to find. If a cheap price is your main criteria, these are easy enough to locate. However, cheap rental apartments generally carry some undesirable ‘features’, such as a marginal location, a distance from public transportation, or being poorly maintained.

Most people don’t want to live in a dangerous or noisy area, in a building with peeling paint and an apartment stove with three operating burners. So how do you go about finding a cheap apartment that you can afford, while enjoying a nice living environment? Housing is costly, any way you look at it. Square footage is the name of the game – the larger the apartment, the more you’re going to pay.

So, to begin with, you want to look for a smaller apartment than you might like. If you’re a single person, looking for a 1 bedroom apartment, think it through and see if a studio apartment might suit your needs. You’ll get a much nicer apartment, albeit smaller. You might also look for an apartment in a private home with a separate entry.

This sort of situation gets you a cheap apartment with more amenities than you’ll ever find in the 1 bedroom apartment at the same price in a comparable neighborhood. So you need to decide how much a separate bedroom is worth. Go shop the used furniture stores and see how much a sofa bed runs.

It’s likely that you’ll save at least $100-$200 a month by making up your bed each night, but in exchange for the inconvenience, enjoy a dishwasher in the kitchen and a spacious shower. If you’re willing to take some time in finding that ideal, cheap apartment, you might also want to look into sublets. Lots of people, through various circumstances, have an apartment that they want to hang on to while they’re on an extended vacation or business trip.

They don’t want to have to pay the rent while they’re gone and are willing to sublet for a period of time, at a reasonable price. This is profitable in other ways, such as having an occupant to avoid that vacated look that might attract burglars. Another option in cheap apartments rentals hunting is the house sitting situation. You may have to spend some time tracking down these opportunities, but among the cheap apartment options, this can be one of the best.

Here, the owner or renter will be traveling for a period of time, but need someone to maintain the yard or feed and walk pets. In this scenario, the apartment or house sitter is offered free room and board in exchange for looking after the apartment or home. Just like the sublet, this isn’t a permanent situation, but the price can’t be beat. During the tenure of the sublet or house sitting, you have plenty of time to find that ideal, cheap apartment.

During your apartment search, do the networking thing. Let everyone in your social and work network know that you’re looking and the price range you’ve got in mind. This can be one of the easiest ways to find the nice, cheap apartment of your dreams. With a good plan and some diligence, there’s no need to settle for a place in which you’d rather not live. Moving is expensive!