To find your own accommodation glance through the Yellow Pages, newspaper or look up the following sites: rent.net, apartmentguide.com, allapartments.com, aptsforrent.com, rent check, apartments.com, National Apartment Locator Service, Homestore.com, homerentals.net, rentals.com, rentwave.com, rentsearch.com

You can get information on how to rent an apartment from the "Apartments" section of the Yellow Pages, newspaper or 'Rental Guides, which are available, at most stores. You can also refer to the web on websites such as Apartmentsforrent.com. To lease (rent) an apartment you should consider following points:

* Lease period, rents and deposits

* Usually there are two types of leases depending on the period of lease: 6 months lease and12 months lease. In some places they allow 3 month lease too, but the rent is comparatively higher.



You have to pay 1 months rent as security deposit and some amount around 10$ to 15$ as key deposit.

* In most cases you get 1 months rent free in 12 months and half a months rent free if you select a 6 months lease.

Utilities

* Check whether your rent includes utilities such as hot water, Cable etc. Else you end up spending around 100$ to 150$ for electricity if you have to pay for hot water

* Understand the lease terms properly because you might need to break the lease

Typically if you want to break the lease,

You have to give 30 days notice

You lose your security deposit

Lease Breaking

If you are sharing an apartment with somebody and all occupants have their names on lease papers, then if one of the occupants wants to leave before the lease period is over, you need to take a letter from him saying that the remaining occupants can do the relevant paper work.

This letter is required when your lease period is over or even if you want to break the lease. If you don't have the letter you won't be able to break the lease unless all three have signed the lease break paper. In such cases you also end up losing your deposit. This is true even for normal termination of lease period.

Damages:

After renting, carefully check and if you observe any damages, ask your property manager to make a note of it. Else this will deducted from your security deposit when your lease period is over

Downgrading and upgrading an apartment:

If you want to move from a 2 bedroom apartment from a 1 bedroom apartment, you have to pay an additional amount of 100$ to 200$. In many cases downgrading i.e. moving to a 1-bedroom apartment from a 2-bedroom apartment is not allowed.

Electricity and Telephone:



After you rent the apartment you need to inform your local Electric Supply company about the duration of stay.
Ask your local telephone company for a connection by phoning them.

Maintenance of apartment:

Clean your oven once in a month using oven cleaning liquid.

Keep the apartment clean.

Laundry:

If the apartment itself does not have a washer/ dryer, there will usually be a common laundry room in the complex where you can do your weekly washing/ drying. Such common machines are usually coin operated.