halp

[bedlamsbard]

Hey, guys, I have a question about how to Adult.

How does one go about getting an apartment in another city? Especially one that is, uh, 2000 miles away from where you currently are?

I can operate google and craiglist as well as the next girl, so actually finding an apartment isn't a problem, especially since I know the neighborhood I want to be in pretty well. (Since I don't have a car, I'd prefer to be as close to the university as possible, especially since I know where everything is in that neighborhood.) But what do I do from there? Do I e-mail and say, "Hey, I'm interested?" or what? My mom keeps telling me that I have to go to New Orleans to look at the potentials in person, but that's a day of transit either way and a lot of money and I'd rather not do so if I can avoid it.

(I've never had to do this before! I lived in university housing for five years!)

Comments

[darklyndsea]

I haven't done this either, so I'm afraid I'm not much help. But you do want to see it in person before signing the lease, in case they're lying horribly.

[cofax7]

You'll need a copy of a credit report, and proof of income.

Do you have a copy of your acceptance from Tulane, with some evidence of how much money you'll be getting on a regular basis?

You might see if you can get a reference from a prior landlord/roommate? Like a letter, maybe?

If you see something you like, and you're sure about it, email the point of contact and ask what they would need from you. But you might need to overnight a cashier's check for first & last month's rent to hold it.

[cofax7]

True. If you have friends in NO, that you can ask to check out a place, that would be great.

[harpers_child]

i found craigslist to be the best place to look for apartments uptown. they'll want to run a credit check. most places want a deposit and first plus last months rent. sometimes those are the same thing, sometimes they aren't. phone calls may work better than email, but i've always been trying to see the place in person before renting. some places have an application fee.

[bedlamsbard]

I feel like this is suddenly more adult than I want to be, heh.

Oh, well, I guess going to New Orleans for a couple of days isn't *that* awful. *sigh*

[bedlamsbard]

...what if I'm not going to have any income? I'm not getting offered funding (unless they're suddenly going to turn around and give it to me, which at this point doesn't feel likely), but I am going to be a full-time student.

And I don't think I have a credit report because I've never had a credit card, just a debit card. Are these, uh, bad things?

[cofax7]

Not bad or good, just things you might need to deal with.

You probably have a credit report, but it probably doesn't have much listed in it. Things that show up would include not just credit cards payments, but utility payments, rent, anything that someone might keep a record of and report to the credit bureaus. Used to be really hard to develop credit: it's easier now.

Where will the income come from that you're living on, while you're in school? If you don't have funding, is it your folks? And if so, you probably need to explain that to a prospective landlord (if they ask).

What a prospective landlord asks for will depend on how tight the housing market is. If they're used to dealing with students, they may be pretty lax about things like credit reports. But you'll still need a deposit.

One thing to try is download a general apartment-application form from the internet and fill it out. Then you have it available right away for anyone who wants to see it.

[(Anonymous)]

You have got to contact the landlords somehow! :) An email expressing interest and asking what they want / need from you would seem to work.
I have always found that extra lumps of money for bigger deposits (if you have them!) up front work quite well to bypass things like credit checks etc.
I would certainly agree that looking at the place in person before handing over any money or signing anything is important!

[lady_songsmith]

To build on what cofax says here re: payments, be advised that if you're expecting to pay from savings they will want someone with income to co-sign, in case you fritter away all the money meant for rent. In that case, or in the case of someone else paying from the get-go, the person-with-income may have to come sign paperwork in person. One place I got with a co-sign insisted on that, which meant a lot of fast-shuffle to get my mother across the country; the other place was fine with faxing (notarized) paperwork around.

[bedlamsbard]

Good to know. (I'm sure I actually learned this in my Family & Consumer Issues class in high school (because I vaguely remember it), it's just that...was a while ago.)

[bedlamsbard]

Thanks! Craigslist has been where I've been looking, along with nola.com. Of course, there's always a point where I'm like, "What's wrong with you, that's nowhere near the universities, why are you saying it is?"

[bedlamsbard]

Thank you! I was wondering if there's a certain boilerplate phrasing you're supposed to use, but "hi, I am [so and so] and I'm interested in" probably works.