Category: Renting Safely

Tips and alerts to help renters find and keep safe housing.

I Was A Terrible Tenant: The Beep & Crash Debacle

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We've all made mistakes when choosing our first apartments. Sometimes those mistakes cause lasting damage. RentConfident exists to help renters avoid some of the more obvious errors that crop up when you rent without doing proper research beforehand. However, I was not always so aware of how to find an apartment. In fact, I made a pretty big mistake in choosing my first apartment in Chicago, and it led to an embarrassing problem that impacted my ability to function at work for years after.

Mistakes Were Made

There was a time back in high school where I could wake up to an alarm clock just fine. I'm a heavy sleeper, but that nasty little beep cut through enough to get me up and out of bed on time. Continue reading I Was A Terrible Tenant: The Beep & Crash Debacle

Published by

Kay Cleaves

How Great Tenants Blow Apartment Showings Before They Even Arrive

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I showed apartments in Chicago and neighboring suburbs for about 10 years. During that time I saw a lot of renters who totally shot themselves in the feet through lack of prior planning. In fact, they did it so often that I figured there must be some sort of sect of renters who really do not want to get approved for housing.

If you're one of those people who wants to totally blow your chance at getting the right apartment, you need to start early in the process. Based on my real life experience with renters, here's some steps you should be sure to take if you want to utterly fail at apartment hunting before you even arrive at a showing.

  • When you book the appointment, make sure you do so on the same day you want to see it. Pitch a fit if the agent can't get you in. (Bonus points if you complain during the showing about how your own landlord has shown your current apartment without notice.)
  • When booking, do not mention that you're already working exclusively with a tenant-side agent who will not be attending the showing with you, but will expect a commission.
  • Do not bring your third roommate who will be paying 3/4 of the rent.
  • Show the landlord that you've done your homework and know the neighborhood really well by texting 3-4 times en route about how you're "a little lost so sry."

Continue reading How Great Tenants Blow Apartment Showings Before They Even Arrive

Published by

Kay Cleaves

The Fair Housing Flaw in Every Rental Application

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It's quite obvious that the US has a fair housing problem. Despite decades of laws intended to prevent discrimination, people are denied housing every day throughout the country on the basis of illegal factors: race, religion, sexual orientation, etc. Agents who work with landlords have a very simple thing they can do to help make housing accessible to everyone. However, despite it being free to implement, easy to do and powerfully effective, nobody is doing it.

Hide. The. Names.

I'm not kidding. Continue reading The Fair Housing Flaw in Every Rental Application

Published by

Kay Cleaves

Could Your Apartment Be the Location of the Next Media Circus?

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In early December 2015 there was a mass murder in San Bernardino, California. In the days that followed, journalists went to the area looking for stories that could provide insight into the background and history of the killers.

It didn't take long for the police and federal investigators to find out where the killers lived. Two days after the tragedy they had already finished examining their apartment. Once they were done with it, the landlord allowed journalists to enter and photograph the apartment.

The behavior of the reports and photographers at the San Bernardino apartment was a vulgar mob scene - NPR called it a "frenzy," a "circus," and a "farce," but they still ran photos. Media correspondents filmed everything from clothes and underwear in closets to photos of family and friends hanging on the walls.

As soon as the media started broadcasting footage of the apartment, my inbox started blowing up with questions from concerned renters. If you were accused of a crime or otherwise the focus of media interest would your landlord have the right to allow nosy journalists to enter your apartment without your permission? Continue reading Could Your Apartment Be the Location of the Next Media Circus?

Published by

Kay Cleaves

10 Great New Year’s Resolutions To Make Apartment Life Easier

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We're coming up on the start of a new year! For many of you, this means it's time to make some changes and improvements in your life in the form of New Year's Resolutions. We know first hand from our reports that some landlords can be really awful, but we also know that some renters unwittingly make their living situations worse without realizing it. Here are some suggestions for how to make your apartment life run more smoothly in 2016.

1. Pay your rent on time.

You'd think this would be a no-brainer, but a lot of you out there are paying your rent late. When we were working for a local property manager we saw anywhere from 5 to 10% of our rent checks come in late.

Late rent payments can prevent renters from getting approved for future apartments, cause subsidized renters to lose their housing vouchers, or even keep first time buyers from getting loans.

2. Keep proof of every rent payment.

While some big-league landlords are using modern technology to process rent, many small private landlords are way behind the times when it comes to their accounting. Mistakes happen. Rent payments get lost. They get mis-entered. They get deposited to the wrong account. Continue reading 10 Great New Year’s Resolutions To Make Apartment Life Easier

Published by

Kay Cleaves