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How to Find an Affordable Apartment in a Big City

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Affordable Apartment

Moving to a large city from the suburbs or a more rural area can be a big shift. I’m not just talking about a little culture shock, but also a big financial change. I found that out first-hand when I moved to Chicago. One of the biggest challenges when moving to a new area, especially a large city, is finding an affordable apartment.

How to Find an Affordabe Apartment in a Big City

Cities like New York, LA and Chicago have reputations for having pretty expensive apartments. If you’re moving from an area where you get a lot of value for your money, the shift can be pretty intimidating. But with a little know-how and research, you can find some hidden jewels.

Here are some of my top tips for finding an affordable apartment in a big city!

1. Talk to Locals

Before actually making the move, I visited Chicago three times. With every visit, I talked to taxi cab and Uber drivers to learn more about the city and get their advice on the best areas.

What you’ll find in most large cities is that they’re broken down into distinct areas or neighborhoods, each with their own culture and vibe. Your first priority should be to narrow down a specific neighborhood or two you want to move to, then look for apartments you might like to rent.

When you run into people, ask them what neighborhood they live in and get a feel for how expensive it is. You don’t want to downright ask strangers how much they pay for rent, but ask how the area stacks up against other neighborhoods.

If you’re moving for a new job, be sure to talk with your soon-to-be coworkers. This was another good source of information for me. Someone from HR emailed me some of the affordable neighborhoods that I should consider checking out, which was a huge help.

2. Check Apartment Hunting Sites

Sites like Trulia and Zillow are extremely helpful for finding apartments in a new area that fit your budget. I spent countless hours browsing online listings to find apartments that were within the budget I felt comfortable with.

The good thing about these sites is they allow you to filter based on price, amenities location and other options to really help you find what you’re looking for.

Don’t just rely on the national apartment listing sites. I was recommended to check out a local apartment listing site specifically for Chicago. Zillow and Trulia tend to cater to large property management companies, whereas these niche city specific sites cater to individuals.

It’s all about real estate listings, I realized the importance of diligent research and strategic planning when navigating real estate listings to secure a budget-friendly yet desirable living space in a bustling metropolis.

Of course, you can also look at the local Craigslist. This is a good option if you want to save money by renting with a roommate. Getting a roommate will automatically cut your rent in half or even more depending on how many people you live with. Just keep in mind that sharing an apartment with a roommate comes with some potential risks as well.

One downside to Craigslist is that it can easily become a bait-and-switch game. I found that out quickly after calling some listings that had been posted the same day, only to be told “I don’t have that specific unit available anymore but I have some other options I can show you.” Those other options were generally at least a couple hundred dollars more.

3. Walk Around the Neighborhood

Affordable Apartment
Photo by Alicja Podstolska on Unsplash

Once you’ve decided on a specific neighborhood, don’t do all your research online. Hit the pavement and go walking around. Although you might think everyone lists their apartments for rent online, it’s not uncommon for condo owners or old school landlords to just put a “for rent” sign outside their building.

In larger cities, there’s so much foot traffic that just putting a “for rent” sign outside saves landlords the time and fees that come along with listing their property online. You can often find steals with these types of rentals because the landlord isn’t doing a ton of competitive research on what everyone else is charging. They’re just charging what they think they should, which is generally less than market value.

On one of my visits to Chicago, I walked around the main area I was interested in and noticed a lot of for rent signs. So when I went back home, I contacted a few of them to schedule a tour for my next visit.

4. Be Open to Compromise

There are probably some must-haves on your apartment checklist, but if you’re on a budget you have to be willing to compromise. Before moving, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to get the same value and amenities I got from my previous apartment so I just accepted it.

I recommend making a list of must-haves and a separate list of things that would be good to have, but you could live without. For instance, an in-unit washer/dryer could be a must-have, but a community gym might be something that you could live without.

In most cases, the cost for all those extra amenities comes out in the costs of added fees or higher rent. You might be surprised by how quickly your needs can change once you see how much more the rent is for an apartment with a pool, doorman and business center.

The key is to compromise, not sacrifice.

5. Consider Living Further From Downtown

The closer you live to the downtown area, the higher your rent will be. When I first started looking, I thought about how great it would be to live close to the downtown area, but I quickly changed my mind after seeing how much the rent was.

Affordable Apartment
Photo by Sawyer Bengtson on Unsplash

My main reasoning for wanting to live closer to downtown was to make my work commute shorter. But it’s well worth spending an extra 10-20 minutes on the train to save hundreds of dollars on rent each month.

Do research and find neighborhoods a little further out that still provide a lot of the amenities you’d get downtown like restaurants, fun activities and shops.

6. Get a Broker

I’ll be honest. I didn’t even know that rental brokers were a thing until I started looking for an apartment in the city. After all my research, I eventually decided to use a broker to find my apartment.

Rental brokers are like real estate agents for renters. You tell them your budget, amenities you’d like and the areas/neighborhoods you’re interested in, and they’ll find a place for you. They’ll even drive you around to the different apartments, which is super convenient when you’re searching in the city. Some will charge you a commission, and others get paid from the property management companies they work with.

In larger cities, there are tons of options available, and there is no single location to see them all. Using a broker makes your search a lot easier and quicker.

7. Look for Up-And-Coming Neighborhoods

This tip saved me a lot of money. When you’re moving to a big city, there’s a lot of temptation to move to one of the trendy, established neighborhoods. However, consider choosing an up-and-coming neighborhood that isn’t quite as well known.  You can get a lot more bang for your buck.

A lot of people associate up-and-coming neighborhoods with being dangerous. However, that’s not necessarily the case. Often times these are neighborhoods that weren’t the most well kept in the past, but over time new homeowners and businesses start to move in to revitalize the area.

The period of time right before a neighborhood becomes mainstream and trendy is the perfect time to rent because you’ll be able to snag a great location before the prices inevitably go up.

Find up-and-coming neighborhoods by talking to people like I mentioned earlier, or just searching Google. There are plenty of blogs that are on top of what’s going on in the city.  They usually put together lists of burgeoning neighborhoods to look out for.

One thing to keep in mind is you always want to make sure you’re moving to a safe neighborhood. While up-and-coming areas aren’t ripe with crime, they are still developing. I used Walk Score to look at the safety rating for the neighborhood I moved into before signing the lease. It’s a great way to check how crime in the neighborhood compares to the rest of the city.

Saving money is great, but you don’t want to risk your safety to save a couple bucks.

Final Thoughts

Putting all these tips into action will allow you get a great apartment in a large city without needing to live off Ramen noodles and bologna.

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There Is No Ideal Time to Contribute to Retirement

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“Do you really think you should be voluntarily putting money into your retirement account?  It just seems like there are so many other things you could be using the money for right now.  Why don’t you wait to contribute to your retirement until you get more financially stable?”

Recently, I was lamenting our financial situation to a good friend.  I just had a dental procedure at a periodontist, I was just told my 6 year old has 8 cavities (that’s another story) that will cost $400 out of pocket to fill, and that my 10.5 year old will need braces to the tune of $5,000 or so.

Add on top of that the fact that our car has 150,000 miles on it, and we refuse to borrow for a new one, and well, I’m looking at a lot of financial stress.

Still, these expenses don’t have to be paid immediately.  I’m saving money every month for a new-to-us car when our old one finally gives out.  I may be able to wait a bit to get my son braces.

I just wanted to vent a bit to my friend and express my frustration.

I was really surprised by her answer.  She simply couldn’t understand why we would contribute to our retirement when we have so many impending expenses.

Yet, as Tracy Chapman sings, “If not now, then when?”

Good Time to Contribute to RetirementThere’s no good time to save for retirement.

You could always use the money for something else.

When my husband and I were newly married 14 years ago, I made a little over $30,000 a year.  We lived in the suburbs of Chicago, which wasn’t cheap.  My husband was a graduate student and didn’t work.  We were flat out broke.

And my employer had a mandatory rule that 8% of my gross income would go to my retirement savings.

I HATED that rule.  There were so many other things that I could have used that money for, but I had no choice.

Eleven years later, when I left the job and walked away with 11 years of retirement savings at 8% of my gross salary plus an equal match by my employer, I was ecstatic that I was forced to save for retirement.

Now, my husband is working for an employer who has the same rule, and we’re happy that 8% of his gross salary goes to his retirement account.

We’ve learned our lesson so well, in fact, we are also contributing to our Roth IRA even though money right now is T-I-G-H-T.

But really, for most Americans, money is almost always tight.

I would rather scrimp and save now, while we still have many working years left before retirement than scrimp and save during retirement, constantly worrying if I had enough money to last me until the end of my life.

So, no, my well-intentioned friend, I don’t think I should stop contributing to my retirement.  In fact, there’s no better time than now to save for retirement.

Oh and incidentally, if you are reading this and thinking about early retirement its important to consider the non-financial aspects, such as…what will you do with your time?

If not now, then when?

Do you continue to contribute to your retirement when facing large expenses, or do you wait to contribute until your finances improve?

 

Are You Teaching Your Kids to Follow Your Financial Habits?

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My oldest is 10, and he does chores around the house to earn an allowance.  He works hard, and we’ve taught him to set aside a percentage for investing (10%), for saving (20%), and for giving (10%).  That leaves him to spend 60% of everything he earns.

And spend he does!

He finds it extremely difficult to let his spend money sit and grow so that he can buy something bigger.  Instead, as soon as the money hits his hands, he wants to spend it even if it’s a fairly insubstantial amount and can’t buy him much.

He just can’t seem to save up for the things he wants.

Instead, he’s enticed by advertisements.  He reads the newspaper and magazines to find free catalogs to send away for, and then he wants to spend his money on any little thing.

Teaching Financial HabitsIt’s driving me crazy.

His money, his life.  I should let him spend the money and be disappointed when he has no money to spend later.

Actually, that’s already happened.  When we first moved to Arizona, he saw a 2015 calendar at Costco for $15.  This calendar had scenic landscapes of Arizona and was quite pretty.  I told him to wait because as 2014 came to a close, he could get calendars cheaper.  But he couldn’t wait, and then in December and January, he was disgusted to find how cheap calendars got.

Still, his behavior hasn’t changed.

As a parent, I wonder how much I should interfere.

You see, when I was young, I was just like my son.  I spent every Saturday at the mall, my money burning a hole in my pocket.  I HAD to buy something, even if it was just a pair of socks I didn’t need.  Every week, I walked through the same stores, buying stuff I didn’t need, just like my son buys the stuff he doesn’t need now.

However, my mom never stepped in.  She gave me a wide amount of freedom.  Whatever money I earned was mine to spend how I liked.   She didn’t even ask that I set aside a portion of it for savings.

I was a responsible kid and bought my own car, paid my insurance, paid for gas, and also bought my own clothes.  I think she figured that I was handling my money well, so it was up to me to decide what to do with the rest.

When I was a teenager, my friend and I used our money from our job to go out to eat and see a movie every Friday.  Sometimes we’d go out to eat on the weekdays, too.

What a waste!

Imagine if I had instead invested just a small portion of that in a Roth IRA.  Or if I had saved it to pay for part of my college education.  Maybe I wouldn’t have graduated with $25,000 in student loan debt.

Even now, I have a hard time saving, though I am getting much better.  I’m finally able to stick to a budget and make saving a priority.  It’s taken me 40 years to break bad spending habits that I learned in childhood.  Let’s be honest, getting a hot deal isn’t really a deal if you don’t need the item and it robs you of the ability to save.

I want to teach my son this lesson now, so he can be more financially responsible than I was for many years.  But that lesson is oh so hard to teach.

How much do you guide and interfere in the way your child chooses to spend money?

For More Great Reads, consider checking out Kidwealth.com and kidsaintcheap.com.