…..not so fast.

You finally received the call. Your rental application was accepted. You can go to the house or apartment you are intending to rent and sign the lease.

You are all exited and ready to move in and move on from your current place, stretching your wings for the first time. Being so excited to get out of the smaller apartment to a larger unit you might forget that you should keep several things in mind while you are signing the lease.

The first obvious thing, and may forget to do it, is to FULLY read and UNDERSTAND what you are signing. When you don’t understand, ASK. If you are not comfortable asking your new landlord, or the landlords representative, ask for an unsigned copy of the lease to take to someone you trust to read and help you understand what is in the lease. You could also bring someone you trust with you while you are signing the lease. Either way, make sure you read the lease!

Before you sing the lease do a walk-through of the house or apartment you are leasing. In many leases it states that you are accepting the unit as it is unless you point out certain problems. There are other rental agreements that will give you a set amount of days to do an independent walk though and turn in the walk-through checklist in to the landlord before you can move in your furnishings. Either way, many do a move-in walk-through, fill out the walk-through checklist, and sign the document and turn it in.

After you complete your walk-through and sign the lease be certain to obtain a copy of all the signed documents. They will serve as proof when there is trouble or you need to refer back to something for some reason.

If you are looking to rent a home or apartment, or looking to have some of your questions answered, just contact the Settles Team and we will be more than happy to assist you.

Many of us will leave for summer vacation soon and will be leaving your house unattended. Unattended does not mean unsecured.

For starters do not advertise that you are going to be gone. In the time of social media most of us tend to announce that we are leaving. One thing you should consider doing before you are leaving is creating a home inventory. When something does happen, it will be difficult to remember what you had, where you bought it, and how much you paid for it? I don’t think I would remember all of this and when you read through the small print of your homeowner’s insurance policy they require you to have an up to date home inventory.

There are steps you can take to leave an illusion that you are still home while you are gone and having fun. They are:

• Putting table lamps and other equipment on timers and have them turn off and on several times during the day and night.
• Keep a radio or TV on.
• When you have dogs you might record them when they bark and have their bark play on a timer once or twice a day.
• Hold your mail. You no longer have to go to your post office for that. They have on the Apple and Google play store an app you can use, even last minute, to hold your mail.
• Ask a friend or family member if they just could check on the house once or twice while you are gone. This will serve as an illusion that you have guests coming and going.
• When you still have a newspaper delivered to your house ask the newspaper delivery to be halted during the time your are gone. When this is not possible ask a friend or family to drive by the house to pick up the paper. First obvious sign of a house being vacant is a pile of newspapers in the drive.
• Consider asking your neighbor if they could put your trashcans on the curb at trash day and move them later in the evening back to the house.
• Keep your curtains, blinds, and shutters closed so no one can peek into the house to see if you are home.

There are many more ideas you can do to lessen the possibility of being broken into while on vacation. Consider calling your insurance agent, I bet they have tons of ideas for you.