Canadian Apartment Hunting Guide – Western Canada Edition
Welcome to the Canadian Apartment Hunting Guide. Your source for dependable information about finding and renting an apartment in Canada, especially...
Welcome to the Canadian Apartment Hunting Guide. Your source for dependable information about finding and renting an apartment in Canada, especially in Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver. Here you will find a veritable treasure trove of information to help you find what you need at a price you can afford.
First, establish how much you can pay for rent. Figure in things like parking if you have a car or public transportation if you need to travel to work and school. Consider how far it is for you to get to the closest mall, grocery store, or laundromat.
Take a look through the rental listings in your community newspaper. When you go to the store or the laundromat, check out the posted advertisements. If there is an apartment building you really want to get into, keep an eye on their availability board, or contact them to be put on their wait list.
Using your budget and your personal needs as a guideline, call no more than six apartments at once. When you call, ask which kind of heat is used to keep the apartment warm in winter and whether your heat and hydro are included in your rent payment. This is very important during the winter when heat and hydro costs can be more than two hundred dollars a month.
Most apartments allow use of the refrigerator and stove that the landlord has put in. Always ask, though, if these items will be included, and make certain when you sign the agreement that these items are listed as being included in the rental agreement. The same goes with washing machines and dryers. Some apartments have them built into each apartment. Some buildings have a common laundry room where you can wash and dry your clothes. Some have none at all. Ask, and make certain any existing equipment is listed on the rental agreement.
Bachelor apartments can be an easy way for someone who is just moving out to get their first space without necessarily spending a ton of cash on getting set up. These apartments often come fully furnished, with a bed, dresser, desk and even a lamp. When you call about these, ask what is furnished and what is not. Unfortunately, most of these types of rental spaces do not have private bath rooms, nor do they necessarily allow cooking in the private rooms. Ask about bathing and cooking areas when you call about a bachelor apartment.
Many landlords will insist on obtaining a security deposit, equivalent to the value of one month’s rent, before you can even move in. That means that you must, in essence, have the equivalent of two month’s rent ready to pay before you move in. Generally, the deposit is used toward your last month’s rent, and accrues interest throughout the term of your rental. If you should decide that the place is not what you wanted and you make a midnight move, your landlord will keep that money as they must now try to recover and to rent the apartment again.
Another thing that will happen when you sign your rental agreement is that your future landlord will run a credit check on you. If you have been paying your own credit card bills or you have been paying your own car insurance, the landlord may not require a co-signor to guarantee your agreement with him. However, if this is your first time out of the house, and you have not built up any personal credit history, you will need someone, such as a parent or older sibling, to sign the agreement to pay your rent should you default on your agreement for example when people are renting or .
When living in Toronto finding that are right for you can be difficult. Viewit can help you with your search for an apartment in Edmonton as well as .