Yuliia Mostova

How To Find Apartments In Vancouver Painlessly: 5 Tips Even if you are new to Vancouver I’m sure you’ve heard dozens of stories about all this real estate crisis in the city. Frankly speaking, it’s kind of difficult, time-consuming and stressful to find a nice apartment in any metropolis of the world. But several insider’s tips can help you successfully cope with the challenge and truly have your “quiet enjoyment” as promised by BC rental contract. 1. Time Frame Most of apartments becomes available for rent at the beginning of the month. As a result, it’s reasonable to start search a month or two prior to your desired moving-in date. For example, we wanted to move to another apartment on February 1st. So, we started our “hunt” (looking for options, arranging viewings and filling up applications) on January 2nd. Until January 13-15, the best and the most affordable apartments had been already rented like hotcakes. That’s how it works. Don’t lose precious time – start search earlier, arrange viewings and visit as many options as you can. 2. Where To Look We’ve found our apartment on Craiglist.com as have done many our friends. Also you can try these common resources: https://4rent.ca/ http://canadarentalguide.com/ https://canada.oodle.com/ https://vivaliva.com/ But there is another interesting thing about Vancouver. You should just take a walk in the area where you would like to live and look for rental advertisements. If you’re a lucky one you may even come across aprt options not listed on websites. Don’t underestimate street advertising. 3. Ad Analysis I know that everything depends on your own preferences and vision of your future home-of-dream. But when looking through advertisements it’s important to pay attention to some crucial things. Price Vs Location You can calculate whether it’s reasonable to choose aprt in downtown near your office or to pay less but spend more time commuting by public transport or car. Location Search with Google maps if there are any groceries/ skytrain stations/ bus stops/ parks near your house. Also make sure that you’ll not live near an active construction with all variety of building noise or near a highway (with the same noisy problem). If it’s, all in all, downtown – the higher store is better: you’ll live too high to hear the buzz of traffic and never-sleeping streets. Furnished/ Unfurnished If you are OK with living in a furnished aprt, go ahead. But in Vancouver you can find yourself in trap – always ask a landlord or a realtor whether furniture on the aprt’s photos is included in the price and if it’s owner’s or tenant’s items. Furnish can be not mentioned in the description of the flat but spotted on the picture – so, you’ll think it goes with the aprt. But not always, buddy. Utilities/ Facilities Kitchen and bathroom appliances are usually included in all apartments but, of course, it depends. So, double-check about laundry/washing (in unit/ building/without), parking lot (included/ for additional fee), gym, pool, rooftop etc. Then – utilities. What is included and what are you to pay by yourself (electricity, heater, Internet, cable etc.)? All this stuff will be fixed in a contract – so you may calculate additional expenses for not covered utilities and consider if an option fits you. Pets It always depends on a building’s rules and landlord principles. In some cases – you’re allowed to have only small pets like cats for a pet deposit (to 50% of your month’s fee). Sometimes no pets are allowed at all – so if you have a little fluffy friend, you should think about this matter in advance. Lease Duration Decide for how long you’d like to stay in the same apartment and pay attention to preferred lease duration mentioned by an owner. It happens that nice apartments you like will be available only for 1 or 3 months. On the other hand, many landlords look for tenants for 1-year lease. It’d be perfect if your expectations coincide. 4. Your Rights and Obligations I have good news. To make the process smooth and painless you should just be aware of the general BC rental rules. This official website (https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/housing-tenancy/residential-tenancies) contains all information you may need, answers to the trickiest questions and even samples of contracts and other documents. Pay attention to: Residential Tenancy Agreement Fees & Deposits Condition Inspection Remember: there is one form of agreement required from all tenants and landlords of BC and it should be up-to-date. Don’t let a dishonest landlord take advantage of you. If you control the situation and obey laws then, in the case of dispute, you’ll be able to prove your rightness. 5. Be Active and Polite You want to find a good aprt and a landlord wants to find a good tenant – this is the usual state of things. There is always a kind of competition for nice flats with nice location and affordable price - they’re real hotcakes. If you’re not willing to miss your boat, try to make a good impression on your potential landlord. I don’t mean making friends, telling jokes and paying compliments to everything you see. Be polite, ask all important questions you have and, if you like an apartment, don’t hesitate to fill in an application. Applications for rent usually contain general questions about you, your work, credit and criminal records etc. It’s even OK if an owner asks you to give your HR’s phone number to make sure you’ve provided relevant information. Overall, trustful relationship with a landlord is a must. And a clean conscience too. 😊 I hope now you’re not afraid of starting your find-nice-apartment-in-Vancouver challenge. As one landlord has said to us, “trust your gut feeling” and it’ll lead you to your new desirable home.