How I Saved Money on My First Apartment

Leaving college after graduation and moving into my own apartment was an exciting yet somewhat frightening time. It was life on my own...kind of. I was living with my girlfriend (now wife) at the time. We had moved up to Indianapolis after school. She was continuing her education in grad school, and I was starting off as a manager-in-training at a well-known Midwestern restaurant chain. The money was okay, but not great, and I had student loan repayments to start making. My wife-to-be on the other hand was just beginning to take out loans for her continuing education.

This made for an interesting situation. We both wanted to splurge a little bit after our hard work in school, and we didn't want our first real place to be some dive on the wrong side of town. However, money was tight and things were far from guaranteed in our lives as I was soon to find out (I ended up leaving the restaurant job less than a month after starting). This meant that we needed to find a reasonably priced apartment, but still in a decent area.

Here are a few of the things I learned during the process that helped us find a really nice apartment with plenty of amenities, in a great location, and for a very reasonable price.

Ask the Leasing Agent

I quickly found on our search through various apartment complexes that it paid to ask questions. We let the leasing agent at the apartment complex we decided upon know that this was our first apartment out on our own. She showed us a lovely second floor unit with a fireplace and a balcony overlooking a lake. The balcony lake view and fireplace would cost an extra $65 a month in rent, but we ask if there was anything she could do to help us out with these extra fees. She ended up waiving them for us, which saved us a pretty penny over the course of the next two years.

Getting to Know Your Leasing Agent

Not every leasing agent is going to be someone you are going to warm up to or click with immediately, but at least making an effort to get to know him or her could pay off. Think of the meeting with your leasing agent kind of like an interview. Both sides are feeling each other out. In the leasing agent's case, to make sure you are going to be reliable and trustworthy renters, and in your case, to make sure that the property and people who run it are going to be reliable and trustworthy as well.

Our leasing agent was super friendly and we got to know her and made a positive impression. Over the course of the next several years, she helped us out with questions and maintenance issues we needed resolved, and as I mentioned, gave us a discount on our apartment amenities.

Consider Amenities

Apartment amenities can go a long way in saving you money, especially when you're first starting out and don't have much in the way of disposable income. Our particular apartment complex offered a gym, indoor basketball court, a pool (with occasional pool parties that provided free food and beer!), clubhouse with big screen television, and even free fresh baked cookies at the leasing office (which made you feel at least a little better about dropping off the rent check!).

When you don't have a lot of money, these sorts of things can provide a lot of free entertainment and help you save some serious cash.

Location

Location can be a huge part of choosing an apartment, not only due to the safety side of things, but because what is around you and close to you can make a big difference in how costly your life becomes. In my case, it was a straight drive downtown to work from our apartment, with not much stop-and-go traffic, which helped with fuel mileage and gas savings. We were also close to a discount grocery store, and a laundromat (since we didn't have a washer or dryer at the time), but not many fast food joints, which helped force us to cook for ourselves rather than rely on takeout.

Bigger Isn't Always Better, but it Might be Cheaper

With apartments, it's sometimes like buying food in bulk, the bigger the package, the better the value for your dollar. A building with three or four apartments for rent might not have the ability to cut deals and offer better services while still giving you a good monthly rent price. But in a bigger complex, with leasing managers and a large number of units, you may find that they are more willing and able to work with you on pricing, provide free or upgraded amenities, and meet certain special requests.

Our particular apartment complex was big and recently built, and sat around a manmade lake. It had a maintenance staff, garages available for rent, and was a wonderful, not to mention affordable place to start out on our own.

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Disclaimer:

This article is for informational purposes only. Any action taken by the reader due to the information provided in this article is solely at the reader's discretion.