Questions Your Leasing Agent Hopes You Don't Ask 👀

As someone who's toured over 15 apartments in just two days, these are questions that you should ask before signing your lease to save your ass. For the first one, ask how breaking the lease is structured. What happens if you need to move out early? How much would you owe? I've come across apartments where if you break your lease, you'd need to pay back your entire moving special, for example, six to 10 weeks plus an additional month of rent. Ask about the notice period. Is it 30 days, 60 days, 90 days? And make sure that giving notice is separate from the lease breaking fee. For number two, ask if the water is submitted or allocated. Submitted means you're paying based on the water that you actually use. Allocated means the property takes the building's total water bill and divides it amongst the residents. It's usually based on the size of your apartment and how many people live there. For number three, and this is probably the most important, have your leasing agent go through every single monthly fee with you. Stop just looking at your rent and get the bigger picture. Ask for amenity fees, trash, pest control, water, internet, and electricity. Oh, and parking as well. And if they can't give you an exact number, just ask for a ballpark estimate so they can give you a realistic range to what your apartment will cost you monthly. And last but not least, ask how accessible pest control is. If you see one bug, you should be able to get rid of that one bug in the next seven days.