Tips and Advice when Renting for the First Time

This is a question that recently came up, a young lady fresh out of varsity and looking to rent for the first time, requested some tips and advice on the process and the questions she should be asking.

Once finding a suitable property that you are interested in, you should be prepared with a checklist of your requirements.
An example is that if you have a pet or require a secure parking bay, this should be on your checklist so you can easily reference against the property you have just shortlisted to see if these and perhaps other requirements are met. This saves a lot of wasted time down the line in viewings and questions for both you and the landlord/agent.
Once you have gone through your checklist and established that the property is available on the date you are looking to move, schedule a viewing!

Security is always an important consideration so you should be asking questions around whether the property has any security guards on duty in the building, alarms or security gates on the doors.
When viewing the property, have a look at the people living in the block and access in and out of the block so as to get a feel of the sense of security.
You will also want to ensure that you stay within your budget so although the advertised price might say a monthly rental amount, read carefully and enquire if there are any extra costs such as electricity, DSTV, Wifi etc