Your First Apartment Rental Experience: A Beginner's Guide
If you have never rented housing for a short or long term, many questions and unclear situations arise immediately. How to choose an apartment? What documents need to be processed? Should you pay an advance and a security deposit? Rent with or without a contract? Every detail is important and affects whether the tenant will be comfortable living in a new place.
It's better to break down this complex and multifactorial matter into parts, make an action plan, and follow it step by step. In any case, you can always seek help from an agency, where an experienced realtor and real estate lawyer will answer all your questions. They will help select housing, inspect it, conduct transactions within the legal framework to protect the client from fraud and unlawful actions.
The balance between desires and capabilities: defining needs and budget
The first thing you need to decide on is your expectations and financial capabilities. Only by calculating your income and expenses can you determine the optimal percentage of the budget that will painlessly go towards renting an apartment.
It's very important to understand that expenses consist not only of the figure listed under "Monthly Rent Cost." The tenant additionally pays for:
- utilities;
- electricity;
- internet, television;
- real estate agency services;
- security deposit specified in the lease agreement;
- concierge and other expenses.
Simultaneously, it's necessary to formulate a list of requirements for the property. It's worth making a list so as not to miss anything important. Even if you decide to search for an apartment through an agency, you will need to voice your wishes, and the compiled list will come in handy. It should include:
- preferred location and infrastructure (proximity to work, school or kindergarten, transportation links, nearby shops and pharmacies, gyms, etc.);
- noise level, air quality requirements;
- type of residential building and the year it was commissioned;
- floor, presence of an elevator, intercom, or concierge;
- number of rooms, area, and type of layout;
- repair and style of housing;
- description of what the furniture and appliances should be like;
- condition of communications.
This stage requires time and attention, but it lays a solid foundation for the rest of the steps on the way to your dream apartment.
Searching for suitable housing: useful resources and tips
This is the moment when you need to match your expectations with what the market offers. The first thing to do is to check popular online resources where you can rent and lease apartments in Kyiv. Local information resources are suitable: newspapers, social media groups, announcements.
To reduce the time spent searching for an apartment and increase its effectiveness, pay attention to real estate agency websites where there is a check of objects before leasing. You can also find useful articles about the nuances of the rental process on them.
Understanding the rental real estate market: districts, prices, and trends
Rental real estate markets have long become part of countries' economies; they are subject to the usual laws of supply and demand. They are influenced by macroeconomic indicators, currency rates, political and social trends, investment expectations.
Price changes occur depending on the region, season, and many other indicators. Data analytics and forecasts are handled by specialists with the appropriate training and experience. This is a complex, multistage process with many variables. Experts publish their findings and assumptions in financial, economic, and business publications.
To search for rental listings yourself or turn to specialists
Searching for a rental apartment takes a lot of time and effort. A client who is picking for the first time is even unaware of:
- fraudulent schemes;
- favorable angles in photos where the desired is presented as real;
- the difficulty of coordinating viewing times;
- ways to reach agreements with the landlord;
- checking owners, documents;
- legal aspects of renting housing, concluding a contract.
This is an incomplete list of what needs to be considered when preparing for a deal. You can do it yourself or turn to specialists who deal with these issues professionally. This will save you time and money.
Preparation for viewing apartments: important questions and checklist
Whether you have selected rental properties yourself or a realtor has done it, they definitely need to be visited and checked. In fact, viewing an apartment is not at all studying one housing unit. The client examines:
- the locality;
- the yard;
- the playground and parking lot;
- the entrance;
- the elevator.
Of course, it's important to pay attention directly to the living space. Using a checklist is a justified way not to forget even the smallest details that can significantly spoil the tenant's life. The form of such a list is free. Use the original requirements or compile a new list. But be sure to include:
- the functionality of plumbing, electricity, gas pipes, and heating system, household appliances, furniture;
- the absence of damage on the surfaces of furniture, walls, ceiling.
It's convenient when the parameters are written down or printed on paper — there is an opportunity to mark correspondences.
Interaction with landlords: negotiation rules
The parties' agreements should be fixed in writing in the contract. The realtor provides the agreement, or you can use a standard contract form. The ideal option is for a lawyer to handle the contract. At the AXIS real estate agency, the commission already includes services for drafting an agreement between the parties. Thus, you get an individual contract for a specific case and do not overpay for involving a specialist from the outside.
Like other relationships, communication with the property owner should be built on mutual respect and honesty. Before signing the agreement, you can negotiate a reduction in rent, improvement of housing conditions. Changes to agreements must be fixed in the lease agreement or additional agreements.
Checking the apartment before renting: what to pay attention to
If the overall initial assessment of the surrounding territories was successful, the layout and design of the apartment matched expectations, you can proceed to check the rental object according to a previously compiled checklist. The tenant needs to activate all their senses. Check the correspondence to the photos, listen to sounds and smells.
All doubts should be dispelled immediately, ask clarifying questions. If any malfunctions, chips, cracks were found, it is necessary to immediately notify the landlord. This is a way to avoid problems in the future, negotiate a discount on the rent.
Special attention requires checking documents for the right to own housing: purchase and sale agreements or gifts, extracts from the state register of rights to real estate, other papers. If the owner's interests are represented by an authorized person, it is necessary to check the presence of a power of attorney for him. It is necessary to control the notarial registration, so that everywhere there is the same exact address. Lawyers at the AXIS real estate agency have access to all listed registers, they verify the data for each rental agreement. This is the client's insurance against fraud and other unforeseen situations with negative consequences.
Concluding a lease agreement: why legal support is needed
Renting an apartment with the involvement of specialists for legal support is the ideal option. This applies to the leaseagreement:
- the standard form does not fully take into account all aspects, unable to protect the landlord from claims;
- a specialist is required when there is a question of extending the contract, changing its conditions, early termination;
- a lawyer will help assess whether the ownership documents are valid, whether the property is under arrest.
The landlord's lawyer explains the peculiarities of taxation. He can suggest the optimal way of paying rent, recording claims, resolving disputes in court or out of court.
The services provided by a real estate agency are a lifesaver for those who want to rent an apartment in Kyiv or another city. The demand for support from realtors and lawyers is increasing due to active internal migration. The costs of paying for services are fully compensated by the saved time, minimizing future risks from unlawful and fraudulent schemes.
