Even though it has a nice ring to it, the world frugal is somewhat redundant. If you have opted for renting, chances are that you’ve done so because you don’t have hundreds of thousands to spare. Although buying a home requires a significantly larger amount of effort, don’t be fooled into thinking that cutting corners will land you a good deal and a satisfying refuge. Choosing a rental place also requires dedication, research and a lot of browsing. With this in mind, here are a couple of useful tips to keep an eye out on while looking for a place.

• Location – Perhaps the most important factor, where your place turns out to be influences your rent tremendously. The best advice here is to have a nice long chat with yourself and come up with a list of acceptable and unacceptable things that you’re expecting from your neighborhood. If you don’t mind loud noises and the ambient of busy traffic, use the fact that such places come at cheaper monthly prices to your benefit. If you do however, look for a place that is more remote, but with the risk of having to commute potentially for hours on end.
• Take photos – It is easy to lose all sense of objectiveness, once you’ve found a particular part of a rental apartment that you loved. If you’ve taken photos of it, however, you’ll get to review it with a cool head, while remaining objective and down-to-earth about the subject matter. Additionally, photos can easily serve as evidence, seeing as how many immoral landlords could try and squeeze out every dime out of your pocket by making false claims that “the radiator wasn’t broken to begin with”.
• Appliances – With the previous tip in mind, make sure you’ve checked every household appliance thoroughly, from the fridge, all the way to the stove, shower and sink valves, washing machine and the toilet seat. If inconsistencies exist, the device(s) in question could be months away from breaking down, potentially causing you to unnecessarily pay hefty sums of money to cover for the repairs and potential damage a broken appliance might cause.

• Paying rent – This part of the subject in question used to be quite simple, a mere couple of years back. Nowadays, however, with the rise in technological trends, almost everything can be done over the Internet. What this means is that you can easily pay your rent online, so pay your rent through Rental Rewards and get some additional benefits as well, such as bonus reward and credit card points!
• Think in terms of weather conditions – The best possible season to go apartment browsing is when it is cold, damp and rainy. If there are any uninsulated walls, you will easily notice these irregularities. A place that looks perfectly seamless in the summer can show you exactly why the price is so low, when the winter comes knocking at your windows.

Looking for a perfect apartment to rent can be done quite easily, if you follow these couple of guidelines. Make sure, however, that you remain wary of all those spiteful landlords out there!