As a premiere property manager in Grand Rapids, Simple Property Management gets tons of questions from tenants about their rental search.  When your are searching for a rental home, the first place you should start is to define where you want to live. Next you will decide on housing type and rental rate. Do you want to be closer to a shopping center, school district, or some other landmark? Once you define the area you want to live, you will need to decide on type of housing.

The next item to decide for your rental home search is whether you want a single family home or apartment. A single family home is going to give you the most privacy of all types of rental homes, but it will be more costly.

Decide on a budget that you want to spending on a rental home.

Once you decide on a rental home to look at, make sure you bring a measuring tape with you to the showing. You will want to make sure that your furniture will fit in the home. That king size bed may not fit into the room after all.

On the other hand, the space may be too large. You may decide that it would take too much to actually fill the space and/or decorate the walls.

Check out the layout of electrical outlets, cable, phone, internet hook ups. The placement of these items will be important when it comes to where you are going to put your items. If you want to put your computer along a wall, make sure there is an outlet near by.

Check the policy for hanging items on wall. Many tenants want to put items on the wall and sometimes the landlord does not allow items to hang on the wall. The landlord will sometimes allow items on the wall if you use removable hangers such as 3M strips.  Most property managers in Grand Rapids will allow some pin holes in walls for pictures, not they do not all allow it.

What type of storage do you need? Do you need outdoor storage? You may want a garage for your vehicle. The garage may not be big enough for your vehicle. Make sure you look closelyat the storage situation.

If you are going to rental a single family home, you will want to make sure you have a way to take care of the lawn. This is because most landlords do not take care of the lawn on a single family home.  Some property managers in Grand Rapids MI want to see the grass mowed every week and some every two weeks.  Check with your property manager to see what their expectations are.

Make sure you check the maintenance policy. Make sure there is a 24 hour number you can call if you have an emergency. This is also why it’s nice to rent from a professional property manager. A professional property manager will typically have a professional way of dealing with maintenance items.