Tag Archives: tenant

Are your utility bills too high?

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We’ve all had that moment when we look at our utility bill and cannot believe that it’s that high proceeding to ask ourselves how it’s that high. The smallest of things could be making your bill ridiculously high, and we’re going to tell you how to change that.

  1. energyLights! Always turn lights off when you leave a room and when you leave your home. It may seem silly, but you’ll definitely see a drop in your bill if you start turning lights off instead of leaving them on all of the time. This same thing applies to ceiling fans! If no one is in the room, turn the fan off. For outdoor lights, you can get motion and light detecting lights that’ll only turn on at night time and when someone is there.
  2. Use timers! Timers are awesome because they take the hassle of turning things on and off away from you. At this day in age, just about anything can be set up with a timer. You can program your air conditioner to only be at lower temperatures when people are home, and rise up when no one is home. This prevents wasted electricity. You can also get timers for appliances that you use regularly, like coffee machines. Instead of making your coffee and forgetting to turn the machine off, program it to turn off when you’re leaving for work and have already had coffee.
  3. Don’t wash everyday! This applies to washing dishes, and laundry. Avoid washing loads of clothes and dishes everyday, or every other day. Not only do these appliances use water, but they also run for a pretty long time and use a lot of electricity in the process.

Who should you lease from?

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When you’re considering what kind of property to rent out and make your home, you should also consider who you’re leasing from.

Usually, your options will be a property manager or property management firm, or an individual landlord. Just like everything else, both have their ups and their downs.

Property managers or property management firms 

Property management firms may be more professional and efficient than individual landlords, because of the fact their duty is to take care of the property and make sure it is being run smoothly. But, you also need to consider that property managers may be more strict than regular landlords, since they have a lot of tenants and can’t be allowing people to break rules. Property management firms will most likely have websites set up for you to pay rent, put in maintenance requests, and contact supervisors, so they save you some time as far as going back and forth with your landlord.

Individual landlords

With individual landlords, you need to realize that their job is typically not devoted to running your property, so they may not be as efficient with things the way property management firms are. Buuuut, on the plus side, individual landlords definitely give you more personalized service than companies who are managing a ton of different properties at once. Also, individual landlords are usually more lenient as far as different aspects of the lease agreement, or if you have issues with paying rent. lease

How can YOU be a good tenant?

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First of all…PAY YOUR RENT ON TIME!!!

Aside from that, being a good tenant goes wayyyyyy beyond paying rent on time. As someone who’s living in another person’s property, you want to be considerate of that and treat is as though it is your own. Be careful, and be kind. Think about it, someone fixed up their home to rent it out to you, so you want to make sure you’re keeping it how you first got it.  Single Family House Rentals helps you find you a rental in your area and set up communication with your new landlord.

Tenant Legal Help

Tenant Legal Help

Go to your landlord for real issues, not silly things you can do yourself. If something happens, like your air conditioner breaks, definitely contact your landlord immediately.

What else can you do to be a good tenant? 

But if something happens, like a floorboard gets scuffed, take care of it yourself. They’re not going to appreciate having to fix very minor things that you could easily do on your own. If you need a roommate, Tenant Moving Assistance help with that as well. 

Back to the subject of rent, if for whatever reason you can’t pay on time, just tell your landlord prior to when your rent is due and see if you can work something out with them. Don’t wait until the day the rent is due, or after that, to tell your landlord that you can’t pay them; as much as you need the money, they do too. As you enter into a lease agreement, start making repair requests, and possibly have a dispute with your landlord, Tenant Legal Rights can help you.

good tenant

VIEW HERE to know more in detail about tips on decorating your rental

Furnished vs. Unfurnished

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Many times when you’re looking for a rental property you’re given the option of getting your new place furnished, or unfurnished. Usually a furnished rental includes the basic furniture most people have in their homes: bed, nightstand, dresser, and desk in the bedroom, couch, love seat, coffee table, and sometimes a TV, in the living room, and some sort of a dining table.

What are the benefits of renting a furnished home?

With a furnished home you’re saved all the time and cost of finding, buying, and transporting furniture. You’re pretty much just responsible for moving your personal belongings into your new home. You also don’t have to worry about moving furniture out afterwards, either. Renting a furnished home is a great idea if you don’t know how long you plan on staying in the same town, because you won’t have the burden of transporting a ton of furniture from place to place.

Now, we all know that with a list of benefits there’s always going to be a list of cons, too.

Usually, if you rent a furnished home, your overall monthly rent will be a bit higher than if you were to rent an unfurnished home. This fee typically isn’t too high, maybe like $20 more a month, but it’s still something you should factor in. Another reason people sometimes opt out of renting a furnished home is because of the furniture itself. It would be impossible to have brand new furniture for every single tenant, so the furniture is used over and over again by tenants who choose to rent furnished homes. It’s also pretty standard, so you don’t really get to pick what kind of furniture it comes with.

furniture

How much should you be paying for rent?

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It’s hard to set a standard price for rent based on just the property alone, so it’s up to you to determine how much you should be paying. You need to look at your personal finances, the property’s location and benefits, and similar properties.

As far as personal finances, you need to figure out how much you can pay without setting yourself back or living uncomfortably. For the most part, rent is typically 30% of a person’s income, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be less or more. Look at your income and consider what 30% of it would be, and if you’d be okay with paying that much. You don’t want to compromise a ton of your income to live in a place you can’t really afford, so make a wise decision.

The property’s location is also very important as location is a defining factor in determining property value. If the property is in a more expensive area of town, you’re going to be expected to spend a lot on rent. Same goes for properties in less expensive areas, they’re going to be cheap. If you’ve found a property and aren’t too sure if the price is right, look at the area and consider whether or not it’s an expensive area.

Looking at the location also helps because it helps you narrow down how much people are paying for rent in similar properties. Before finalizing how much you’re going to be paying for rent, do some research on the rental cost in properties similar to the one that you’re interested in. Be it area, number of rooms, etc., you’re bound to find properties that share some similarities with yours.

money

Personalizing your space

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Recently, we talked about different things that a rental home has to offer that you can and can’t change (read it here), so we figured we’d bring you some tips that’ll help you customize your space and make it all your own.

Wall decor!!!! This includes sooooo many different things, so you’ll truly find something that’ll suit your personality. Pictures are cool because they allow you to get really personal and showcase the things that have real significance to you (like people and places). A cool way to arrange pictures is to use all kinds of different frames; it’ll add some flare to the room and isn’t expensive to do if you hit up your local thrift shops. Posters are also awesome! There are all kinds of posters available for all kinds of interests, so you’ll definitely find something you like. Plus, posters take up a pretty large space! Speaking of space…tapestries also take up toooons of space! They look great and can completely transform an entire room, all whilst taking up an entire wall. plants

Plants!!! Plants, real or fake, definitely add life to any room. You can have flowers, ferns, etc., the choice is yours. And, plants refresh and purify your air so they’ll have a benefit beyond just looking nice. If you have a certain theme or color scheme going on in your home, you can find plants that match this and make your home feel like it’s truly yours. Also, just like with picture frames, you can create a unique arrangement by combining a bunch of different pots for your plants.

Lighting is huge! Choose cool floor lamps that reflect your own style and can serve as conversation pieces, too. Lighting can change the entire mood of a room, so be sure to choose wisely! An easy way and inexpensive way to create some nice lighting is by adding christmas lights to a room; they can be put anywhere, and everyone can agree that they add a pretty touch.

 

Your Perfect Space – finding the right area for you

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If you’re in the process of looking for a new place to live, a big thing you need to look at is what kind of home and community you want. Do you want an apartment in a tall building? Or a house in a gated community? Do you want to live in the city? Or the suburbs? So many questions!

Before you start browsing possible rentals, narrow down what kind of area you want to live in. Base your decision on your job, lifestyle, family, etc. Look at all of the different factors that will be affected by your place of living, and then figure out what kind of area is good for you. Once you’ve decided what kind of area you want to live in, it’s much easier to figure out what type of home you want to live in.

If you’ve chosen to live in a more urban area, you’ll have quite a few apartments and condos to choose from, but maybe not so many houses. In a suburban area you’ll have all kinds of houses and communities to choose from, as well as townhouses and apartment buildings (typically not as big as those in an urban community). Different kinds of places offer different kinds of benefits for you, so this should also be factored in.

In an apartment, you won’t need to worry about landscaping issues and things like that, but you’ll probably have to compromise on the amount of space you’ll get. In a house in a suburban neighborhood, you may pay more for rent (depends on the market) but you’ll have lots of space. In a gated community, you’ll have security, but you’ll also have to abide by strict community rules; you may not be allowed to park more than two cars in your front yard, rules along those lines. These are all pretty general things, but the specific building, neighborhood, and community rules will vary.

Before making the decision about where you’re going to live make sure the area is right for you, and the space is perfect for you.

metropolitan area

Permission to change?

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In any home there’s always the desire to add your own personal touch; with rental homes, however, this can get a bit tricky.

Since the home you’re living in technically isn’t yours, you’re not entirely entitled to change it up however you please. Sure, you can move things around and decorate in your personal way, but before you start painting and knocking down walls, run it by your landlord first.

Usually with simple things like paint colors your landlord will let you have the freedom to paint over the colors the home came with, as long as you commit to getting them back to their original color once you move out. Now, it gets a bit trickier withrental home things like floors (and floor plans, too). If you want to change from carpet to wood floors, or anything in that realm, you definitely need to ask your landlord if it’s okay with them. Typically if it’s something that’ll increase the value of the home, or just make it look better, they’ll be okay with it. Wanting to make big changes, like remodeling, aren’t really in your best interest. Yeah, it’d be great to have a huge closet, but is it worth the cost and hassle on a home that isn’t even yours?! Don’t think so. Unless it’s something that is absolutely necessary, and you know you’ll be living in the home for a looooong time, your landlord probably won’t sign off on it either. Plus, all of these changes aren’t free; these will require a big financial investment on your end.

If you want to add your own personal touch, focus on the decor of the room and creating the right ambiance. Super easy and you don’t need anyone’s approval but your own.

The tenant.rentals eBook is here!

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tenant.rentals eBook - What ALL Tenants REALLY Need to KNOW We are in the age of the eBook! Keeping up with this, tenant.rentals has put together  the ultimate tenant resource: What All Tenants REALLY need to KNOW

The new tenant.rentals eBook is a great resource for tenants everywhere. We put  together the information that is relevant to you, so that all of the questions you’ve  had can be answered. The great thing about this is that it’s in PDF format, so you can  easily save and load it into your eBook library. From topics like signing your lease to  dealing with loud neighbors, this book has it all. We know how frustrating it is to not  have the answers to these tough questions, so we figured we’ve give you a solution-  on the go.

Now, you’re probably wondering, “how do I get this awesome book?!”…it’s simple!  Just click the link above, enter your email address and wait for the confirmation  email, then voila- the ultimate tenant resource is now yours! Best part of it all? It’s  free! We want tenants everywhere to have access to our eBook and make it their  primary resource for tenant related questions and issues.

What are you waiting for?! Get your copy today!