Staying In

Online Apartment Hunt for Beginners

Hello FlokqJune 10, 2020

Apartment Hunting is one of those things that gets you anxious when moving or relocating, especially when you are new to it.  But still, this is something that you have to do, and you will thank yourself if you do it yourself. One reason is that you know yourself relatively better than other people since no matter what people know about you, you still know those pesky little details that people might misinterpret or miss altogether. Whether it is compared to your family member or significant other, choosing something as personal as a new home is an important task that can have a safer outcome when done yourself. For those who are not familiar with it, here are the steps for online apartment hunting for newbies!

Finding more apartment? click here

Make a list of priorities

Long before choosing potential apartments, you need to think about the things that are most important to you when it comes to everyday life in your new place. Is the price already going to be a dealbreaker? Is the distance from your campus or workplace to the apartment an important thing that matters? What about the apartment’s space, does it suit your daily needs? Are the facilities in the building up to your standards? Whatever it is, write those things down. A rule of thumb would be that if you think about it worryingly, then probably writing it down and taking it into account later would probably be a good if not the best course of action.

Make a table

From those list of priorities that you made, put them into a table form. An easy way to organize it is to make the names of the apartment at the left-most side of the table and to put the priorities at the columns on the right. This way, you can track the names of the apartment relatively easier and you can add more things to the info of the apartment as time went on. Also, having a column to put pictures of the apartment is also good. Separating them into outdoor and indoor pictures can sometimes break a stalemate between places too! This way, you can do an easier way of identifying and putting more information onto an apartment by ticking the boxes, coloring them, or even putting degrees of how you like them (e.g. average, great, awesome, perfect, etc.). Don’t forget to put vital information like contact number and address too!

Make question templates

The next step to this hunt is to make question templates from your priorities. We know that this might sound like we’re nannying you to the whole process, but when you do have question templates, the whole process can seem more structured and less straining because you’re more or less prepared from the beginning and not going with the flow too much. Making questions are actually quite important to know the details on your future apartment, it will come in handy when you are those picky-types that seem to have a really hard time finding just the right one. 

This method will also prevent you from forgetting to ask the important questions as people who improvise too much might do, and asking questions is also to prevent unwanted things in the future. Also, it’ll decrease the mental burden of always trying to remember things every time you start the whole process of asking again. After all, this is almost the same as being an interviewer, so try to be prepared!

Ask for suggestions

An important part of almost any plan is to ask for suggestions from the people you trust. Your friends, family, or significant other can always check the details of your plan as they are the ones who know you best. If you’re with a soon-to-be roommate, then ask him or her on the overall plan as it will affect you and your roommate(s). Sometimes you would miss one or two important questions to ask the owner of your potential apartment, so asking them would make sure that you will ask the right questions and the right amount of them!

Don’t forget to use as many apps or websites as you can for reference!

When you surf the web for your new home, try to be as diverse as possible in terms of your sources, other than going to its official websites. When you narrow it down just from one app or website, you can miss some great deals or unique places that might fit you. So use as much as apps or websites as you can so that your search will not forget to include hidden gems just sitting there in the ones and zeroes of the world wide web. Start from websites like Flokq, rumah.com, or rumah123 and add other sources when you can! They all have their own shortcomings and advantages.

This needs to be done because not every people that offer apartments have the luxury of using multiple ‘vendors’ for their advertisement. Try to consider reviews too, you don’t want to go to an apartment that is not worth its money or getting sellers that aren’t honest. So, try to be digitally diligent! 

Contact and eliminate

While the subtitle of this part might sound like a guide to be a hitman, making it cooler than it is, this is actually just a normal and natural part of the hunt (which can actually be cool too) if you’ve followed this guide so far. Because you have taken the method of making a table, you can just contact, ask the questions that need asking, tick the boxes that need ticking, and repeat the process until you think you’ve had enough. After finishing the aforementioned process, try to begin ranking all of the apartments that you’ve gathered information on and slowly eliminate those that are sub-par. Then you can get maybe a top 10 or top 5 to really look at the details and marginal advantages.

After you’ve done our step-by-step process, you should be finding your perfectly fitting apartment in no time. Choose and decide in your own time and if you need to sleep on it, sleep on it! Clear your head and take a look at it closely and repeatedly if you have a really close stalemate. Additionally, having a deadline for the decision might help you not to postpone the decision too much (as we, avid procrastinators often do)!