The Most Important Rental Tip We've Ever Given

We've given out tons of advice for renters over the years. We've talked about living in questionable places, given tips on shared laundry spaces, an insane amount of diy projects, and questions to ask before renting. Though when all is said and done, we can live in a leaky apartment, deal with less than insulated windows and even horrible neighbors — just as long as one thing is a-ok, care to take a guess?

Sit on the toilet. That's it. That's the big secret and it's a big one! Hell hath no fury like an uncomfortable pooper. Seriously. More often than not, changing out a toilet, or relocating one further away from a wall won't be in the deck of decorating cards you'll be playing as a renter, so it's best to check first. Now, we don't think it's proper to take a magazine and settle in, a quick check will do just fine!

It's almost a hard thing to remember, we're always so busy looking at where our furniture will go, storage options and even how many outlets a place has, but making sure you can go about your daily business and be comfortable while doing it... we swear it's the key to happiness. Not always socially acceptable to talk about, but it's a great reminder none the less!

Think you have a better "What To Look For Before Signing A Lease" tip? Let us know in the comments below!

(Image: Flickr member DennisKatinas & licensed for use under Creative Commons)

Comments (55)

Excellent tip - but let's add to that shall we?

When I rented my latest place, I didn't realize that the bathroom door DIDN'T CLOSE SHUT. I discovered this after signing the lease and low and behold, the door and jam had been painted over so many times (and I think even the wood expanded) that the door doesn't close properly.

Pretty embarrassing when company is over!

Talk to other tenants if you can. What the neighbors think of the landlord, the property...and the other neighbors. Sometimes this is impossible, but if you have the chance- go for it! Also, ask about any prior pest infestations, noise complaints, and break-ins.

Speaking of plumbing, turn on the shower taps and check the water flow. Do the same in the kitchen and bath sinks. Crappy water pressure is not usually in the hands of the renter unless it's a blocked shower aerator or something small, so it's best to find out before you sign.

Check the kitchen exhaust fan. If it does not actually pull air out of the room there better be a window near by.

the last place i rented.....the landlord brought me up to check out the unit (tenant still occupied it). we knocked, and when the door opened, my friend answered the door. surprise surprise. after the tour i called him and got the lowdown on the building.

most important thing to me is water pressure.
no matter how comfortable or uncomfortable a toilet seat
might be.....it doesn't matter if there is not enough pressure for a good flush.
FYI, a toilet seat can be changed out in less than 5 minutes.

Take a notebook containing the measurements of ALL your furniture as well as a tape measure. Make sure your big pieces can be moved in before signing anything.

Also, take photos! You may look nuts, but those are two of the best things I can think of.

woah! NOT the visual I wanted to see. There should have been a warning. :-)

honestly? how long are you going to be spending on the toilet? On a normal basis, i.e. you're not sick or anything . . . shouldn't be spending too much time. Maybe eat some fiber or visit your doctor. Also, magazines/books in the bathroom gross me out. Disgusting. Seeing a rack full of magazines next the toilet at someone's house or in the house tours on here is one of the ickiest things to me. Sorry, it's visceral, can't help it.

Could you possibly have found a cheesier and less tasteful picture? No? Come on, did you search really, really hard? Well, I guess if that's the best you can do, we poor AT readers will have to make do with what you've got. Seems a pity. Based on poor taste evidenced in the past, AT is capable of plumbing much lower depths than this, given time.

ditto, kimg924 and NorNor!

1. Get everything in writing. If a landlord says he will finish installing central air by the time it gets warm have it put in the lease and have back up provisions in writing.

2. Water pressure cannot be underestimated. Check it everywhere water exists.

3. Look under sinks for signs of leakage or mold.

4. Check windows for air leakage. Will they keep the cold out in the wintertime? Will the landlord reimburse for weather-proofing?

5. Drive by at night on a weekend and weeknight. Is there adequate parking during peak hours? What is the activity/noise level?

6. If looking at apartment buildings on upper levels, make some noise. Are you setting off dogs in the building? Can you hear hallway noise from inside the apartment?

7. Look up the address on everyblock.com (http://chicago.everyblock.com/crime/). Keep in mind that all neighborhoods have crime. Compare activity to other neighborhoods.

kdizzle took the words away.. Check for mold for sure. I had a whole closet items destroyed. I never in my life dealt with mold so never though of it.

Also, I learned my lesson when I was a pup took an apartment at a busy intersection did not realize how noisy it was until my first night there. Visiting the rental different times a day is a great tip.

Living in urban apartment buildings check the bed bug reports website.

So true!!! I rented a place with a super wobbly throne. Drove me crazy. Luckily I had a friend help me take it apart and put in a new seal and shims for less than $10. I'm of the opinion that it's in a renter's best interest to be industrious and their own go-to handy-person (within financial reason of course). That said, I'm an engineer and I've never been burned by my "updates".

Hey! Can we get a NSFW here? Seriously. Some of you guys in crazy non-conservative land may be fine with this but a picture like this can get me shot off to HR quicker than the cat can lick its ear. Even if I'm looking at it at lunch or after hours.

I wish you'd posted this 3 months ago before I signed my lease. I believe my bathroom was built by a weekend warrior about 50 years ago and although it's in good working order, when I sit on my toilet my arm is up against the wall :(

Agree with NorNor completely on both points. This is not the number one thing I care about, and books in the bathroom are revolting.

I absolutely agree, I've lived in two places that I ran into this type of problem. 1) In south Philly had a bathroom so tight you couldn't turn to grab the paper, the TP would always end on the sink, which was basically in your lap anyway. 2) Had an apartment with no walls near the toilet (sounds weird... and it was) so the TP always would end up on the floor. We were too poor for one of those stand alone things.

My own thing that I always check is the shower height. I'm 6'5 and have lived in too many apartments where the shower head was at my shoulder level and I needed to duck and bend to wash anything above that. It was terrible! I now literally get into the shower and stand there when I'm looking at a place.

Ha! I thought the most important thing was LOW RENT.

We have put up with SO much crap in our building...I love the unit (an old building with original wood floors, crown molding and charm to boot) but we have dealt with:
- cockroaches (our hoarder neighbor below us brought them)
-9 month old baby sharing a bedroom wall with us.
-busy street noise at all hours of the day and night.
-windows not properly sealed: bugs and rain water and dust everywhere.

Why have we stayed? Because the rent is LOW. Last year when our 1 year lease ended the Landlord called and offered to knock $100 off if we resigned. That ends in May, and I plan on doing some persuading to get it even lower. We deserve it - he moved a baby in nextdoor in a building known to have no wall insulation. We will be in heaven if we can get it lower!

Really didn't need to see that.

Windows is definitely the hugest factor for me. I live in the northeast.

I was SO psyched to score the top two floors of a gorgeous Victorian for $550 per roommate (there were only two of us). Then the $400/month heating bills started rolling in, despite the fact that the inside temperature never got above 52 degrees for five months a year.

If a place doesn't have double-walled metal insulated windows less than 5 years old, I'm not intereested.

why is the toothbrush by the toilet? eew

I would say the most important thing for me is to never, ever trust the company when they show you the "display apartment" and say the one you are renting will be exactly like it. Let them know you're getting to peek into your actual apartment or you're leaving and finding someone who will.

I made the mistake of trusting our landlord. Saw a quite nice apartment, and end up signed on to one that had ugly plywood cabinets instead of nice carved ones, no kitchen bar, no outlet and a gaping hole on our patio, a chipped, cheap acrylic "countertop" in the kitchen, and the UGLIEST tiled bathroom I have ever seen in my life. Lumpy brown and orange speckled tiles in unfortunately oblong shapes. Makes it look like someone had a dreadful accident all over the floor.

Sure, I could have complained, but there I was with a moving truck and movers waiting at the door, with every minute costing me more.

Never again!

Nasty photo, and I'm not sure the most important thing is really toilet seat comfort.

Things that are really important? Definitely amount of outlets (I only had one outlet in a bedroom, once, and ONE in the KITCHEN), but also insulation (talk about expensive heating bills, if you're not all-in), water pressure, neighbourhood, rent, and overall cleanliness. My deal breakers include rent higher than my budget will allow, pests (esp. roaches and bed bugs), very bad/sketchy/slummy neighbourhood, and no laundry facilities. I'm sure I'm forgetting something.

If you're planning on checking out the toilet in an apartment you haven't rented yet, make sure the water service is working and that there is water in the toilet tank for a proper flush. Yep. Happened to "a friend".

Check the water pressure in the shower. Seriously, learned this the hard way.

I just ask, "do you have any pest problems and if so, how do you deal with them?" and the answer to that question will tell you a LOT.

Furpants, that's disgusting! I disagree with all these people saying "ew, I didn't need to see that"/"that's so inappropriate" (come on, people, it's just a fact of life. Stop acting like squirming 12-y-o girls.) But I'm pretty sure that the OP meant that you should just SIT on the toilet. Pants on. To actually use the toilet, when it's not your place and there might be other people about to be shown the place... Disrespectful and disgusting. Ugh.

I've definitely thought about this toilet tip since I moved into my current apartment a couple of years ago... its placed in such a silly way with a radiator right in front/beside it so that when we used to have it on (now we keep it off all the time.. minus 50 weather be damned) you would burn your hip or leg on the metal... you're also pretty much forced to sit sideways on the thing. Bleh.

So true, and the pic is hilarious! I once had an apartment in which the toilet was situated so close to the tub that one had to sit sideways, or else keep one's knees elevated somehow. NOT a good layout, even though the tub in question was a marvelously roomy claw-foot one. The place was sketchy in many other ways and I ended up leaving after two months. I guess the month-to-month lease should have been a clue.

kimg924 and NorNor and peggyb = a bunch of f*&@ing pansies.

I gotta admit, I spent 1.4 years in a great apt that required me to sit at an angle on the commode to avoid serious wall burn on my knees. This apt was also the first I've encountered that turns on the shower by pulling down an inner ring inside the bath faucet :( I finally called the landlord after a week of 'ho baths.

I love my apartment, but I wished I'd been told more specifiaclly about the neighbors. With my 3 kids playing in the yard the last person I want next door is an alcoholic wife beater. Sorry to be a downer. I'm moving in a few months...

I can't agree on the toilet seat being THE most important thing , but it make's the list of things to check for . I think AT should get a list together from all the comments here ! There are alot of good ideas here ! Checking on the outlets is a good one . How about bringing a list of what to check with you so you don't forget to ask? Making sure the landlord isn't crazy is always helpful . For comments on the pic , I think it was put there for humor , maybe slightly "over the top " but I thought it was amusing .

Really? People are upset by the picture? Lighten up, guys. It's an amusing subject. I thought the picture was funny. And here's an idea, if you're at work: why don't you do some WORK? I'd love to have a job where I can wander about the internet all day, but unfortunately I have to earn my paycheck. And yes, I often work through lunch and until 7 or 8 pm, after getting there at 6:30 am. Anyway, on to the comment that actually focuses on the topic at hand: being a 6-foot tall chick, I must say that toilet placement is pretty darned important. I don't exactly spend much time there, but neither do I want to add discomfort to a regular activity that isn't exactly fun in the first place. And I just have to add that reading materials in the bathroom gross me out. It must be an American thing, because I've never seen it in European households. Yuck.

I agree with the commentor who said to not trust the company on the "display apartment". I was shown a unit with a dishwasher and carpet, and they refused my request to see the unit I was going to move into, saying it was "just like the model". Lo and behold, when we started moving in, we found a place with hardwood, NO dishwasher, and 200 sq smaller. Fortunately, I had been smart enough to stipulate in my lease that we were renting the unit with the dishwasher, so they upgraded us into a bigger unit with the features AND hardwood.

Don't just trust, get in writing the appliances you think you are renting, and don't be afraid to complain as needed.

Haha, having a toilet that is wedged underneath and behind an eight inch sink in a two foot wide bathroom where it is difficult to not only reach the toilet paper but to wipe, I totally get where this is coming from. There some nice things to be said about Victorian homes but this drives me crazy!

The most important thing you've missed, that is a MUST check for renters with children or who have family with children that will visit:

Meghan's law

sorry, megan's law.

I COMPLETELY agree with this post! My first 120 sq. foot apartment in Montreal had such a small bathroom that you could not sit facing-forwards on the toilet. You had to sit facing sideways as the wall was so close to the front of the toilet. It was ridiculous, but it wasn't something I hadn't thought to check before moving in!

how does that foot pedal waste bin work when there's tp and a TOOTHBRUSH on top of it?

A toothbrush next to a toilet is even more disgusting than reading material...

I'm not especially tall for a guy, but at 6'1", I've learned to always look at how high the shower head is. It gets old pretty fast to have to stoop down to rinse shampoo out and it's really easy when you've got soapy water on your face and can't open your eyes to find that low shower head against your face.

My biggest grip is shower drainage. We had the bathroom totally remodeled by an agency (to make it wheelchair accessible) that hired questionable but very, very cheap contractors. Now we have a toilet in front of a window (chilly in the winter, mold continually grows on the single pane windows all over the place), but the worst is the shower that replaced the tub. We have a special plunger for the shower and have to use it many times while bathing, even without running it continually. I turn it on, then off, soap up, then on to rinse, then off to plunge, then on to rinse, etc. etc.

I cannot believe how prudish people are in these comments! Everyone uses the toilet, you know! This image wouldn't even merit a PG-13 in a movie. The weirdest gripe is the one about using the toilet while being shown a place. OK, so what... are you supposed to do? A water fast starting an hour before you go see a place? Also, I live in a world where there are public restrooms with multiple stalls, and tiny restaurants with toilets right next to seating. Do these cause nervous breakdowns in these commenters?

BABIES. Ask about them. Not only do they cry and then grow up to shriek, but your own noise levels ironically become suspect, especially after 9pm. Ugh.

I looked at an apartment in an old Victorian in Galveston, one of those big old gingerbread places that had been gerrymanded into 3 separate apartments. The footprint for this apartment hadn't included one of the existing bathrooms so the put one by walling off the end of a hallway. The space was tiny and had a linen closet in one wall. I walked in the bathroom and couldn't find the toilet. The renovators put it IN THE CLOSET. You opened two folding doors and the toilet was there where they'd taken out the bottom shelves. I tried to sit on it, but my head barely cleared the bottom of the lowest remaining shelf. Can you imagine backing your bottom into a linen closet? Bad bad bad idea.

Terry, I love it! That place sounds awful, but I'll bet it had lots of character (if you were short enough to handle the linen closet shelving)!

My favourite bathroom issues that I've discovered thus far are:
- non-functional exhaust fans and the resulting mildew, peeling paint and mould in bathrooms.
- a toilet situated close enough to the door of a cramped bathroom that the door had a NOTCH CUT OUT OF IT to fit around the toilet when opening... thus rendering your bathroom experiences none-too-private, ever.

Touring apartments can be challenging, particularly if they've already cut the power off. How do you know how good the lighting is, if the fan works etc.? It can be incredibly misleading.

Bathroom comfort is important, just for basic health reasons. If you are constipated from not feeling comfort or privacy in your bathroom (supposing you have roommates or a partner) that is just no fun. It can ruin weekends even!

Second for me is a kitchen that functions. My current apartment has a messed up stove and oven. The top element in the oven doesn't work (except on broil) so my cakes don't get to rise properly because the oven isn't heating from the top and bottom. This seriously drives me NUTS. But I digress...

chokolaj - my first apartment in Chicago had that same problem, and I hounded my rental company until they came over and sanded down the paint so that the door would shut. Cleaning up the sanded-off paint & wood was a chore, but it was better than hearing my roomie take a crap every day.

Even if you sit on the toilet, you never know if it has idiosyncrasies when it flushes, like if you have to hold the handle down all the way until it finishes flushing. I can't stand that. My current apartment is like that (only after my old roommate, who broke the toilet in our old apartment, came over and flushed my new toilet, and broke it, too. Since the repair, it's been really annoying. Girl does not know how to flush a toilet, how has she functioned in society for 26 years? I digress.)

The most important thing to me is turning on the shower to test the water pressure.

As much as I'd like to try to take the high road on the toilet matter, I moved into an apartment that was "just renovated" last year-- except that the toilet is NOT bolted to the floor! And, the dishwasher isn't bolted into the cabinets. And, the cabinets facing is coming off (doors, frame and all). It took months to get them to get the buzzer/intercom working. I have too much heat (if you have too little, sorry if this seems petty) but I have to have the windows open year round so I don't roast. I've had roaches and mice that travel up from the basement (praying not to see rats). The apartment above mine had a leak that caused mold in the back of my closet that I didn't notice until the whole wall behind my clothing was wet. The laundry room is a wreck (machines are always broken). Last time it rained, it was raining INSIDE the elevator!

The building is "going co-op" and is being renovated by non-licensed builders. There is not coop board yet because less than half of the units have been sold -- and since the mortgage market dried up, it's not likely to get there any time soon -- so the old owners are still running the place like it's still the bad old days of Section 8 tenants (so they just don't seem to care all that much).

Is it cheap? Not really. Is it going to be much better anywhere else unless I'm willing to pay $3000 per month? Not likely. If landlords can't make money, they will do as little as possible.

i was pretty specific about children when i looked at my apartment, it is a deal breaker. children shriek and cry, that is what they do. most of my neighbors are older and have lived there for a number of years. management changed recently and i have new people in the building who play loud music that rattle the walls for several hours at time. the information you all have provided will be very useful as i hunt for a new rental. Thanks!

Never trust the person showing the apartment! There's a train track literally about 20 feet outside our bedroom window. When we inquired whether it was still used, the shower - who also lives in the complex - said that a train goes by everyday at 6 pm and he just walks his dog at that time. No big deal. Ha! There's at least one train every hour and at least three every night. We live right on a bend in the tracks so every time a train comes, they lay on the horn the entire time until they pass. Surprisingly, you get used to it, just fall right back asleep... now we joke about the 6 o'clock train.

There are some things worse than an uncomfortable toilet... and much harder to fix!

Water pressure in the shower!

Having lived in a place where I had the choice of sitting on the toilet sideways or hanging my legs into the tub I know how important this is.
Another trick is to see how easy it is to get in and out of the bathroom. I bought a place before it was finished and they hadn't installed the doors yet. The door frame is on an angle wall and once the door was installed I discovered it is very difficult to get in and out of the bathroom because when opened the door uses up almost all of the floor space. However, it is quite humorous to witness tipsy friend struggle to get out.

That's not a toothbrush. It's part of the hemorrhoid remediation toolkit. Next!

I happen to think the pic is hilarious. Reminds me of my hubby. LOL
One other tip- really try to look at it when the current renters are in there. I failed to do this. Actualyl, I specifically asked if I could look at it when nobody was in there. A few weeks later, the cops knocked on my door, and demanded to walk thru the apartment- turns out the previous tenants dealt pot from the place, and the cops were still suspicious, and had flagged my apartment as "one to watch". Fabulous, eh? The same apartment also had a SERIOUS mouse issue the first 3 months or so- I mean, I put down a trap and caught like 10 a DAY. AND my 2 cats were catching a lot too! Called the landlord SEVERAL DOZEN times, and he offered to "put some poison under some furniture" to get rid of them. Um, hoss, I have 2 cats. NOT a good idea. Eventually my cats got rid of them all, but still. Ew. And, though they told me it would be fixed, when I moved in the fridge wasn't there, there never was (in a year!) a shower (only a bathtub). Brutal. Now, I ALWAYS GET REPAIR PROMISES is WRITING.