When trying to decide which apartment will be best for you, it's important to consider the amount of support each landlord is willing to provide for his or her tenants. In order to determine this, you should find out the way potential apartments handle maintenance as well as security issues.

It’s important to find out the way your landlord handles repairs before they become a problem. You might be looking at an apartment with a great Jacuzzi-style tub... but if your landlord's never there to fix a bad draining problem, you might not ever get to enjoy it! You need to find a complex with a good maintenance system.

So, how are you supposed to learn how a certain apartment handles maintenance problems? Ask the landlord or manager handling your apartment inquiries. Find out how repair requests are handled. You can ask questions such as: "Is there a resident superintendent that handles all maintenance problems?", "Are maintenance hours restricted?" or "How long does it typically take for repair requests to be answered?" The answers should give you a little insight into the way that things are handled.

If you don't get much of an answer out of the complex representative, you might consider asking a resident. If the person you approach is irritated by the way the complex handles repair requests, he or she will be more than happy to vent.

It is incredibly important to find out how your complex handles security issues. Find out from an apartment representative whether or not they have any type of security guards on site. Ask if they re-key apartments once the old tenants move out. Maybe you'd feel more comfortable in an apartment close to the police department. A good friend of mine lives about a block away from the Arlington police department, and I feel so much safer when I leave there at night. On weekends, there's usually a cop car that cruises around to make sure everything's fine. It helps you sleep a little easier. Unfortunately, not every complex can all cram around the police department. This is why you must research the area to determine how safe it is.

Remember: just because an apartment looks "clean" doesn't mean that it is. Find out about the neighborhood crime statistics. APB News provides a general idea of neighborhood safety in the U.S. on their web site. You just enter in the zip code you’re wondering about and hit return and you’ll find out the level of safety on a scale of one to ten.

Once you've discussed both maintenance and security issues with the representatives of potential apartments, you should be able to make a confident decision on which place you will decide to call home.

Published: May 12, 2000

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