Things on this page are fragmentary and immature notes/thoughts of the author. Please read with your own judgement!

Fees

Utilities

1. Which utilities are included in the rent? Water, electric, trash, etc.

2. administration fee, application fee? I hate these fees.

3. Facing which direction?

4. South is probably the best, especially the sun room

5. Internet

   • everyone claims their internet speed is fast
   • TV cable is usually faster than phone cable
   • ask for the name of internet supplier
   • Century Link is very bad, slow, limited services
   • Time Warner Cable is bad

Facilities

• Garage (In states where the winter is long and fierce, it is better get a garage.)

• Laundry (Some apartments do not have a laundry room which is not convenient.)

• Gym

• Trash (get clear about where the trash can is and how to dispose trash)

• sink (make sure it works, try it!, some sink might be clogged)

• disposal (make sure there is disposal in the kitchen, some kitchen especially in cities don't have one)

Floor

• Generally higher floor is more quiet
• higher floor is safer (security, flood, etc) and ususally cleaner (less bugs, etc.)

Safety

1. Gated Community or Not

   • Gated is safer though not convenient for driving

Location

Quiet or Not

• too close to noisy road?

• too close to airport?

• too close to a pulic facility?

• big apartment? smaller is usually more quiet

• higher level is usually more quiet

• Is the house in or close to woods? If so, there might be many bugs especially in southern states.

• If a house/apartment is too close to a highway/subway, it might be too noisy. From my experience, two blocks (vertical distance) from the subway is acceptable.

• Close to restaurant, shoppings, gym or not

• How old is the apartment?