In terms of American law, at eighteen, you’ve officially declared an adult. Although you cannot drink alcohol (legally), you’re already able to enroll in adulting activities such as working and driving a car. However, something that people misunderstand is renting an apartment. So, will apartments rent to 18-year-olds?
Apartments will rent to 18-year-olds if they have enough financial background to prove they can continuously pay their agreed amount each month. For instance, an 18-year-old might get rejected to rent a penthouse in Miami because they usually don’t have the income to afford this, but not a traditional one-bedroom apartment in Springfield.
After reading the above, you should quickly determine if an apartment will rent to an eighteen-year-old. As you can imagine, it depends on their financial self.
If the tenant can sustainably pay for the apartment, there shouldn’t be any issues if the renter is 18 or over.
Moving into your first apartment at eighteen is undoubtedly exciting. It’s your first step into the adult lifestyle and, most importantly, freedom.
However, you must undergo this procedure correctly to ensure a smooth lifestyle. To understand how you can achieve this, I recommend you become familiar with the below tips:
Tips To Consider When Renting An Apartment At 18 Years Old
Renting can seem daunting, scary, and expensive, but it doesn’t have to impact your life negatively; it should be exciting.
To increase the chances of a successful rent agreement, you’ll want to learn some fundamental rules. Here’s what you need to know:
Budget Wisely
Before you move into an apartment, you’ll want to ensure you have adequate funds. A saving plan will undoubtedly help you save for your furniture, security deposit, and safety net.
It won’t only help with the initial process but also during renting.
Ideally, you’ll want to follow a simple, effective, and well-known money management strategy. What helped me was the 50/30/20 rule. Here’s how it’s outlined:
- 50% of your income will go towards necessities (rent, utilities, insurance, gas, etc.)
- 30% of your income will go towards wants (new clothes, games, holidays, etc.)
- 20% of your income will go towards savings or debt repayment
The strategy itself is well-known across the globe. Because of this, there are various calculators online which can help with this money management technique.
Determine Your Needs
Additionally, you’ll want to determine your needs to decipher where you genuinely want to live. These requirements will need to be realistic and considered within your budget.
To understand what types of needs you might want to contemplate, see the following:
- Air conditioning
- Balcony
- Pet-friendly community
- Town-center location
- Gym
- Two bedrooms
The above outlines some requirements that might be a necessity for eighteen-year-olds looking to rent their first apartment.
Other individuals’ needs might be different, but you get the idea.
Have a Tour Of The Apartment
Before you sign any paperwork, take a tour of the apartment. Not just the potential unit you’ll rent, but the entire building. Here you can visualize living there and understand the quality of living the property owners maintain.
Considering that a 1/3 of American renters are unsatisfied with their apartment amenities, it’s more than worth checking them out yourself.
After all, if you’re going to contract yourself into a rental unit for an extended period, you want to guarantee you’ll love it.
Understand The Utilities Included
All apartment rental agreements are different from one another, so you’ll want to become knowledgeable on what you’ll be paying for in the contract. Depending on where you rent, your utilities may or may not be included.
Therefore, before signing any paperwork, understand what’s included within the renting price and a rough estimate of the additional utility bills.
Heading back over to the 50/30/20 rule will help you significantly when deciding if you can afford the property.
Consider Parking
Most apartments are in congested towns or cities. Therefore, you need to become familiar with the parking rules based on a series of situations. These include:
- Does your apartment have parking (if so, how many permits)?
- How full is the parking lot during the evenings?
- Do visitors park in a separate location?
- Can visitors stay for long durations or at night?
- Will you have your own assigned parking spot?
I’ve seen many people not become familiar with this, resulting in them paying 100s a month extra in parking costs.
Read and Be Familiar With The Lease Agreement
All in all, you’ll want to become familiar with the entire lease agreement. Remember, this is your first lease, so take your time.
Although contracts can be pages and pages long, spend a night reading through and highlighting anything you might have concerns about.
Although many landlords will ask you to sign the paperwork the second it is handed to you, take it home and explain you would like to read through the agreement.
Get Insurance
Renters insurance might be a mandatory requirement before moving into the unit, which your landlord requests. However, even if it isn’t, you might still want to consider opting in for this coverage.
By doing this, your apartment and its belongings will be covered entirely by fire or theft. It isn’t costly, so you’ll undoubtedly want to work this into your 50/30/20 budget plan.
Take a Walk Through Your Apartment
Lastly, once you’ve finally moved into the apartment, take a look around your unit and start snagging. Within the agreement, landlords might have suggested that they’ll take care of any potential damages that have developed naturally.
Therefore, begin snagging when you move into the apartment. Doing this involves you walking around the apartment and looking for defects.
These might include water pressure, heating, furniture damage, etc. Whatever it might be, you’ll want to “snag” it (aka write it down) and send an email to your landlord expressing the problems.
Afterward, they’ll fix the issues, and you can live happily ever after.
After reading the above, you should now understand that you can rent an apartment at eighteen.
The only requirement is that you’ll need to showcase your financial background to prove you have adequate funds to pay for the unit sustainably.
Including this, we also expressed some helpful tips to assist the youth of today move into their first apartment. The tips are valuable, but only if you implement them correctly. Therefore, carefully note these and apply them with accuracy.