When To Start Searching For An Apartment

As someone who tends to plan out my life by making tons of Pinterest board and researching where to live here in Lexington. I personally, love to plan out and brainstorm where and how my future apartment is going to look like. Honestly, this is a huge stress reliever this midterm season. However, I have this upcoming year as a Sophomore to plan out where my future roommate Katherine and I are going to live our Junior year. But when is the perfect time to be searching for an apartment? Well, we are about to find out.

When looking for an apartment whether it is off-campus or on-campus, you need to know if you and your roommates would like to lease or rent an apartment or townhouse. Which there is a difference between the leasing and renting. Leasing is when it is a contract agreement between the landlord and the tenant. Whereas renting is for the tenant to rent the apartment and acknowledges that the landlord is responsible for keeping the apartment in a livable condition for the tenant.

With knowing the difference you can now continue to the process of searching for an apartment. If you are planning on leasing an apartment know that leasing season is May to June and August to September. Note that if you live in a city college town, then you might need to start applying for this type of housing in August or September. (YES! It can take up to a year for a waitlist for an apartment depending on their popularity, size, and the number of college students needing a place to live.)However, renting an apartment does have a high demand, but researchers said that the best time to rent an apartment is in December and March. This is due to the majority of renters looking for apartments to rent in the summer months. Which makes May through October the most expensive months to rent from.

But now that you know when leasing season is you can start looking for places two or three months in advance. The reason as to why you want to start this early is because you simply have more options and opportunities if you start early than the rest of the people, who will start looking in later months. For example, you can start with apartments near campus and then branch out within a certain range you are willing to go. After you have seen all of the apartments you could possibly want to see. Make a list and then narrow it down to the final one, and go after it by applying for it the earliest you possibly can.

Apartment hunting can be a stressful process to go through when this is your first time. However, if you start earlier and get ahead then this will be the best way to start searching for your new apartment.