I'm gonna be moving into my first apartment in the coming months. I'm not your typical broke college student with no/minimal income, but obviously I'm not just care free $2000/month 3 bedroom apartment either. So with that said I'm not really looking for the usual slew of "buy all your food in bulk from walmart and buy all your clothes from goodwill"... because let's be honest, that's common sense if you're on a very tight budget.
Looking more for what to look for and what to ask when I'm checking out apartments, as well as tips for making the life easier. I do think I would like to get a pet eventually, probably a cat because I expect to work fairly long hours. Other than that I couldn't really care less if it's 300 square feet or whatever as long as it has a basic kitchen and some place to sleep, and isn't in a dangerous neighborhood.
edit: I've been reading around myfirstapartment.com, some nice tips there in case anyone else wanted help or was going to suggest that.
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[–] TheMagicalElf ago
As another poster said, don't rush into getting a pet. I have 2 cats and they limit my options, as many complexes and rental houses won't allow pets, or put strict limitations on them such as 1 cat, or only dogs below 40lb. Most complexes I've lived in charge a pet deposit on top of the regular deposit, as well as a monthly "pet rent", so it increases living costs in addition to food, toys, litter, etc. Cats require less work in a lot of ways than dogs, but they also can be harder to train out of bad behaviors (peeing on the carpet, scratching furniture). Having a pet can be great, but considering the costs is important, especially when the rest of your situation is changing at the same time.
[–] 5404009? [S] 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Not sure if you'd know this, but since apartments generally have to let emotional support/service animals in regardless of their general policy, and you don't have to actually have any certification for your pet to be an emotional support animal, could I buy a cat at any apartment and claim it's an emotional support animal?
It's not really lying, I do get extremely depressed and lonely without SOME kind of friendship, human or animal.
[–] TheMagicalElf ago
I'm not sure on that one, you'd probably have to check your state laws on what qualifies a service/support animal.