Part One: Money, Leases, Landlords, Legal Stuff

Part one: money, leases, landlords, legal stuff

what papers do i need to rent a house? 

Not a ton. You usually need your social security number, a driver’s license or state ID card, and copies of your paystubs or some other form of proof of income.

What is a mortgage and how does it work? Is renter’s insurance necessary? What do I do if my landlord is in violation of the lease?

A mortgage is a loan from the bank to buy a house. It’s a combination of the amount borrowed and the interest accrued. You agree to pay back the loan over a set period of time, in monthly payments. It’s a lot more involved than that so I guess let me know if you want more info on that, but you don’t really need to know about that until you’re purchasing a property. 

Renter’s insurance is required by most landlords. This is so the insurance company covers it if your home is damaged by a natural disaster or a car through your wall or something. It also covers your home getting broken into. Renter’s insurance is really cheap, I think mine is $10 a month or something.

If your landlord is in violation of the lease, go above them and talk to their supervisor or the property management company. If they aren’t responsive then go to a tenant’s rights group in your area, or contact the Department of Housing (depending on how big the issue is).

hey how are you! been following you awhile now. just wondering like how much money you should save before moving out, some tips for people not making a lot of money and dying to leave their parents lol

The general rule is 3 months of living expenses plus emergency money. This should include: 3 months of rent, 3 months of utilities, 3 months of transportation expenses (bus/train fare or gas + auto insurance), 3 months of food, 3 months of phone/internet, 3 months of miscellaneous household shit 

I’ll give you the breakdown for my house as an example:

$1300 rent x 3

$100 utilities x 3

$60 phone x 3

$70 internet x 3

$75 auto insurance x 3 OR $100 bus fare x 3

$200 food x 3

$50 houshold x 3 (toilet paper, toothpaste, paper towels, soap, cleaning supplies, towels, etc)

medical expenses, personal expenses, etc not included

$5565 total (not including gas because i forgot it)

Also, you need to put down a deposit on a unit and usually first months rent + last months rent. Deposits are generally one month worth of rent.  This means total move in expenses for my house (NOT including utilities set up fees, internet fees, or any household expenses) were $3900 to my landlord.

Also broker’s fees are a thing in big cities but not Seattle.

You also have to factor in general house shit like furniture, silverware, towels, blankets, etc. Having zero furniture is cool for awhile but will make you crazy in a short period of time (example: I lived in an apartment with no dresser, couch, chairs, or desk for six months. My only furniture was a tiny bookshelf and a mattress. It was the worst. I was only living there temporarily and didn’t want to move furniture when I moved into my permanent house).

I don’t have any credit (never had a credit card, loans, etc.) will it be hard for me to get a place to rent? 

In my experience, many places are wary of renting to people without credit. I think what generally turns them off is that you have never paid bills so they have no idea of knowing if you’ll be able to make rent on time. Oftentimes they will ask for a cosigner on a lease if you don’t have credit. This means that your parent or relative (or anyone really) will sign the lease with you and also have their name on there. This is so that if you stop paying your rent, fuck up the apartment, etc, if they are unable to find you or you will not pay the rent/charges, your cosigner is responsible for paying them.

I recommend paying bills in your name or getting a credit card and using it RESPONSIBLY. That means utilizing 30% or less of your total credit available, and always making payments ON TIME, ABOVE the minimum payment. Pay a small bill that gets paid every month for sure with a credit card, like your phone bill or the internet bill. 

I also recommend just moving into an established house and being put on the lease that way, or subletting. That way even though you don’t have credit you have rental history and references.

I know that when you rent a house you have to pay for things other than rent, what kind of stuff is normally included in that and how much is a reasonable amount to pay?

Other bills are generally water, sewer, garbage, and electricity, but it varies by location. In some states heating is separate, and it’s required for the landlord to pay the heating bill (though this may mean that they leave it on all winter and you cook, or they leave it on but really low and you freeze). The most common thing I’ve seen is that landlords pay w/s/g, and you pay for electricity. Again, this varies greatly by location. For example, my electricity gets billed 4x a year, so they’re pretty large bills when they come in, but it isn’t a monthly expense. Seattle is super mild so we don’t have air conditioning or regularly use heaters. We’re also running my boyfriend’s giant computer all the time. Our bills are generally $250-$350 every three months. This is split between four people so it’s not that bad, never more than $100 every cycle. But I gotta stress that this varies from place to place. I have friends that live in large houses with 5-6 people and their utilities are about $100 a month per person, on top of rent. You need to ask the landlord what they cover and what the utilities usually come out to every month.

HORROR STORIES/PREVENTATIVE MEASURES

When making your master post about basic tips etc, I’d like to share my horror story. I only turned on the water faucets in my bathroom not the kitchen and it turned out the cold water didn’t work. In addition the faucet was missing an aerator too so the water was super wiley. Ugh and I should mention I moved from an apartment on the 3rd floor of a building to the 10th and apparently the 10th floor has bug problems I could not foresee. Maybe some tips for prevent buggies?

Fuck that sucks. Bug tips right here. Know what they look like, don’t take furniture from the street!!!!!

WARNING SIGNS

what are some things you should watch out for when looking for somewhere to rent? With the landlord?

Unit: Lots of discarded furniture outside/by the dumpster/in communal spaces (bedbugs). Dirty communal washing machines. Dirty lobbies. Weed smell (personal preference lol). Indoor smoking. Established (5 years or older) building and many empty units. Many people leaving after year-long leases.

Landlord: Are they shady? Do they tell you about their drug habits? Do they use hard drugs? Do they accept 12 applications even though they know that the first person is going to get the unit (applications are $20-$50 each usually)? Do they avoid showing you parts of the building? Are they creepy? Do they hit on you? These are all things I have had happen when looking for a place and they were all huge red flags. Don’t rent from someone that does any of those things.

im viewing an apt tomorrow and making a list of questions to ask landlord. is there anything specific i should ask thats often forgotten?

What are the utility bills generally running each month? How long do tenants usually live in the unit? How much has the rent increased over the last three years? What kind of people live in the apartments (families, students, DINKs?)?

disclaimer: all of this varies place to place, city to city, state to state, etc. this is just based on my experiences viewing hundreds and hundreds of houses and apartments in seattle.