Easy Steps to Finding a New Apartment + Free Template Spreadsheet
Finding an apartment can be a tricky process, especially when you’re venturing into a new city or state. When my sister and I embarked on our process of finding a new apartment we had about 2 months before our lease ended. We used this Google Sheets spreadsheet to help us track every step in the process and make sure we made informed decisions based on the things we wanted in our apartment and the state of our finances.
READ: 11 Things You NEED to Know Before Apartment Hunting
READ: The Basic-Starter List of Your New Apartment Needs
HOW TO USE THE TEMPLATE
While searching for apartments, you may be overwhelmed by all the information and possibilities. In our latest apartment search, we used this spreadsheet to organize which apartments we liked, track the times of tours, and compare our final two choices financially.
STEP ONE: Make a list of what you want in your next apartment.
Start your search process by making a list of the things you would want in your new apartment. For example, I knew I wanted good water pressure, garage parking, and double pane windows. Everything else I could negotiate. Once the list was solid, we added a priority number based on how important this was. We referenced this list when searching apartments online so we knew how it compared to what we ideally were looking for.
STEP TWO: Research and fill out the template with apartment options.
Use the “Interesting Apartments” tabs to track apartments that you want to look into further and possibly contact to check availability. From here, you can contact apartments via online message or phone. Ask if they have units available and provide the number of rooms/bathrooms and your target move-in date. Fill in your tour times in the “Latest Updates” column as you schedule them. I was able to schedule 4-5 back to back by using Google Maps to track how long it would take to get from one apartment to another.
Fill out the name and neighborhoods of the apartment, the price, and the link. Replace the columns “1,2,3” with your top three priorities of your apartment. For example, I had parking, gym, and in-unit washer/dryer. Your priorities are also things that you want to make sure to see when you tour. Not all washer/dryer units are the same and you want to make a note of that and other things you notice in the “comments” section.
STEP THREE: Assess the final options and choose your new home.
I used the “Final Two – $” tab to compare our final choices and do a rough estimation of your moving costs. Plus, you can make a Pros and Cons list for each. Using this sheet, we were able to get a solid picture of what costs would be coming depending on the apartment and how good the “deals” that we were offered (such as two weeks off, etc).
DOWNLOAD THE FREE TEMPLATE SPREADSHEET.
Feel free to customize it for your needs.
