Consider heading southwest if you’re looking for your next great gig!

If you’ve decided it’s time to find your fortune, you may want to be strategic about where you look for it. The website NerdWallet has some suggestions.

They’ve ranked the top 10 cities for job seekers, crunching the data and basing their list on population growth, employment rates, cost of living and income.

Find your perfect apartment now!

If you’re looking for a good, steady paycheck and the potential for future growth, consider finding an apartment in one of the top cities they’ve determined:

1. Austin, Texas
2. Washington, D.C.
3. San Francisco, Calif.
4. Denver, Colo.
5. Houston, Texas
6. Fort Worth, Texas
7. Dallas, Texas
8. Seattle, Wash.
9. San Antonio, Texas
10. Charlotte, N.C.

Top Texan Towns
They say that everything’s bigger in Texas, and apparently that edict extends to economic growth, as well. Of the top 10 cities that made the list, half of them are located in the Lone Star State.

What makes Texas metros such a good place to find a job? According to Forbes, it comes to down to an affordable cost of living connected with explosive population growth. When a city’s expanding, it is attractive to large companies that want to make use of the available resources. An expanding population also means that these growing cities have a need for more services — in turn, creating more jobs.

In addition to Texas’s growing population, the state also offers an abundance of natural resources, a variety of institutions of higher education, and unique cities like Austin, Houston and San Antonio — all of which help contribute to a diverse and stable economy. You just might consider heading southwest if you’re looking for your next great gig!

Bigger is not always better
But Forbes is also careful to note that it isn’t necessarily the biggest city that brings the biggest paycheck or best standard of living. Job seekers sometimes assume that big cities like New York and Chicago are the best places to find employment. The biggest cities, however, often have the highest costs of living. While you may be able to land a job in a bustling metro, keep in mind that a good portion of your paycheck may end up going to your living expenses each month.

Set your sights
Ready to start a job search in one of these top cities? CNN Money suggests working your social network and researching the top companies in the city you choose. It’ll be easier to find a job at a company that’s in growth mode and hiring en masse. The economy’s looking up in most cities, and there’s never been a better time since 2007, they report, to find your fortune as a working professional.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock / Santiago Cornejo

For many, renting is a cheaper alternative to owning a home, particularly in certain areas of the country.

To rent or to own? This is the question! For many, renting is a cheaper alternative to owning a home, particularly in certain areas of the country.

Get the lowdown on reasons why renting might be the affordable housing choice for you.

Move-in expenses
One of the ways that rental living is unique compared to owning a home lies in upfront costs.

To purchase a home, buyers have to lay out a significant amount of cash before they get the keys. Down payments range from three to 20 percent of a home’s purchase price, in addition to other cash closing costs, including taxes, home owner’s insurance and title fees. Buying a $100,000 home might cost as much as $5,000 just to move in, for example.

Not so with renting. Renting an apartment home is a cheaper alternative to owning because the upfront costs are much less of an investment. The upfront costs of renting typically include an application fee, security deposit and possibly a pet deposit. While a security deposit may well be a chunk of change, the move-in costs associated with apartment living don’t come close to totaling the cash outlay needed to close on a home purchase.

Monthly living costs
One financial relief about renting an apartment is that you know what the monthly costs will be. The amount of your rent is set in the lease you sign. You always know when the rent is due, and you know it’s not going to change, at least for the period of the lease.

For homeowners, a fixed monthly mortgage payment may not be the case. Adjustable rate mortgages mean that sliding interest rates can cause a homeowner’s payments to fluctuate. And property tax rates can change as well, which also affect a homeowner’s monthly bottom line.

Managing surprises
Thanks to the lease contract, the financial commitment associated with leasing an apartment is clear. In a lease, each obligation is outlined, from rent and security deposits to charges for rekeying locks or terminating the lease early. Nearly every financial detail is clearly spelled out. 

Homeowners, on the other hand, know to expect financial surprises from time to time. Home maintenance, for instance, is one of these potential surprises.

In an apartment, property management is typically responsible for most repairs — everything from fixing leaky faucets to repairing roofs. When you own a home, however, all of these duties fall to the homeowner. Taking care of a major repair like replacing a hot water heater, for instance, requires a ready emergency fund to pay for the surprise. 

With apartment living, there really are fewer financial surprises. And that makes apartment life an affordable housing alternative that offers more security and peace of mind than you might have considered.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock / Andrey_Popov

Getting started on finding a new place to live doesn’t have to be scary or a chore. With a bit of organization and pre-planning, your apartment search can go smoothly and result in a fabulous new place to live. Here are some tips to get you going in the right direction.

Determine the kind of apartment that will meet your needs
It’s hard to start apartment hunting if you don’t know what you’re looking for. One bedroom? Two? A community pool? A separate office? How much do you want to spend?

Before you start your search, you need to know what you want in an apartment in order to weed out places that aren’t going to fit. Answer these basic questions before you kick off your search:

• How much can you afford? How much do you want to spend?
• In what area of town do you want to live?
• How many rooms do you want?
• What kinds of amenities do you want? Do you want access to a gym? A pool?
• Do you prefer a gated community?
• What features do you want inside the apartment? Do you need a washer and dryer in your apartment?

Once you have a basic outline of what your minimum requirements are, you can then start considering optional luxuries — more expensive kitchen appliances, a covered parking space, included utilities, etc.

Set some dates
The amount of time you allow for finding your apartment will depend on how quickly you have to move or how much time you can devote to an apartment search. If you are under no time pressure, allow yourself one to two months to find an apartment. Mark your calendar with your intended move date and move backwards, making sure to leave enough lead time to pack, move and clean your old place.

Stay organized
If you’re looking at a lot of apartments in your apartment search, then you’ll need to keep track of what you like, what you don’t like and what has yet to be seen. The easiest way to keep your apartment search organized is by creating a folder. Print out apartment listings and take them with you when you go to see the apartment. Jot notes on the listings that will trigger your memory about them. In this notebook, also keep your list of “apartment wants,” noting which apartment has the features you desire, and a list of questions to ask apartment managers. In this folder you can also keep any flyers or paperwork apartment communities offer about floor plans, utilities, fees and other important facts that could influence your decision.

You are now ready to start an organized and well-planned apartment search. Armed with these tips, you’ll be signing the lease to your new apartment before you know it.

When you’re considering renting an apartment, you’ll want to know what to expect from a prospective apartment community.  That’s why asking the right questions of an apartment community manager is so important.  Ask these questions during your apartment search to ensure that you have a clear picture of what it will be like to live in your new digs.

What is the condition of the unit?
Before you sign a lease, if possible, have the apartment manager show you the exact unit you’ll live in.  Take your time and do a thorough inspection, checking out the condition of appliances, windows and walls.

What’s the noise level like?
Apartment community managers — especially those who live on-site — are very familiar with the amount of noise in a community because they’re usually the first ones to be notified of complaints. If peace and quiet are of great importance to you, ask when noise levels are highest in the community.

What’s the parking situation?
Will you have your own designated parking spot in your apartment community?  If not, ask the apartment manager about parking rules.  Make sure that there will be room for your car in the community’s lot.  And if you plan on having a regular guest (like a boyfriend or girlfriend) visit your apartment, be clear on where they are allowed to park, too.

Where are the washer and dryer/hookups?
If there isn’t a washer and dryer or hookups in your apartment, ask the apartment manager where you can do laundry.  Is there a laundry room in the building?  How much does it cost to wash and dry clothes?  If there’s no laundry room, ask where the nearest laundrymat is located.

What is the pet policy?
Don’t forget to ask about Fido during your apartment search.  Rules on how apartment communities handle pets vary greatly from one community to the next.  Ask whether there are restrictions on types of pets, what the fees are (if any) for having a pet and what the policy is for cleaning up after Fido.

Where do residents shop?
Getting a handle on an apartment community’s neighborhood is an important part of your apartment search.  Ask the apartment manager where the most convenient places are to shop for groceries, pick up prescriptions and get gas.  Access to the goods and services you use most will be important to you once you settle in.

Can I decorate?
Some leases place restrictions on what kind of decorating a tenant can do.  For example, some apartment communities don’t allow residents to paint or make holes in the walls.  If setting your own decor is important to you, make sure you know exactly what’s allowed.

How are maintenance issues handled?
Ask about the procedures for handling maintenance issues and repair requests:  Should you put them in writing or is verbal notice appropriate?  Is there an on-site maintenance crew?

Are there any monthly fees?
You know you have to pay rent every month.  But there might be other monthly fees associated with renting an apartment.  If you have a pet, you might have to pay a monthly pet fee.  You may also be responsible for paying some or all of the utilities.  Make sure you understand — and can afford — the actual cost of renting an apartment.

Be diligent about asking questions during your apartment search, and you’ll be prepared for a smooth move into your new apartment community.

Does your apartment search seem overwhelming?  Get it under control with a helpful organizational tool: an apartment search file.  Your apartment search file will help you find an apartment fast and with a lot less stress than you might experience otherwise.

What’s an apartment search file?
If you want to find an apartment for rent and don’t have a particular place in mind already, chances are you’ll spend a lot of quality time researching apartment communities, talking to property managers and cruising town to scope out neighborhoods. All of that research can be a lot to keep track of, particularly if you’re apartment hunting in a metropolitan area where there are a lot of choices.

It’s hard not to experience information overload at the beginning of an apartment search. You’re bound to amass a collection of brochures, applications and other paperwork everywhere you visit.  Not to mention that you’ll have seen so many apartments and talked to so many property managers that pretty soon all those apartment communities may seem to blend together in your mind.

That’s where an apartment search file comes in.  An apartment search file is a handy binder that you maintain during your search to organize all of your important information and keep everything straight.  The real value of this tremendously useful organizational tool is that it’ll help you make a final decision when it’s time pick a new place to call home.  With all of that apartment search information in one place, it’ll be easier to see which place meets your needs and set the application process in motion fast.

What goes in an apartment search file?
Kick off an organized apartment search by creating a special binder or accordion file.  Designate one binder tab or file section for each apartment community you plan to visit.  You’ll keep all the papers you get from each apartment community in their respective sections.

Other helpful items to keep in your apartment search folder include anything that could be useful during apartment visits or neighborhood research.  These items include:

• Maps
• A list of questions to ask apartment managers
• Pens, pencils, or highlighters
• A pad of paper for note taking
• Sticky notes

Keep all small items like pens and sticky note pads together with a Ziploc bag or 3-hole punched notebook pen pouch.

If you need to find an apartment right away, give yourself the ability to act quickly by including apartment application items in your search file as well.  Compile a list of references (both personal and professional) as well as a list of all other apartment communities you’ve lived in.  You’ll need to have these items handy if you want to fill out an application during an apartment visit.

Making the most of your apartment search file
Like all organizational tools, an apartment search file is only helpful if you actually use it.  So make the most of it by adding new papers to your binder or accordion file as soon as you receive them.

When it’s time to make the final call on where to rent an apartment, you’ll be glad you kept everything organized in your apartment search folder.  All the information you need to make the best decision will be right at your fingertips.

Sometimes it seems there are so many details to consider when choosing an apartment that it’s hard to hone in on a final decision. There are many angles that might make one new apartment seem more appealing to you than another.

Read on for our some guidelines on how to channel your second-guessing toward choosing a great apartment.

Search carefully
The first step in choosing the right apartment is to search in the right way. Be sure that you record the details of the apartments you visit in a binder that contains all of the property’s stats, your notes, photos and answers from the landlord on whatever questions you have.

Know your priorities — and stick to them!
The most important aspect in making a choice is knowing what is really important to you. By putting your apartment priorities down on paper, you’ll know what to keep in mind during your search. Considerations may include location, how much rent you can afford and the type of apartment you’d prefer. When you’re ready to choose an apartment, consult your priority list, note how the contenders match up and narrow your choices to a very few.

Get a second opinion
If you are looking for a new apartment with a roommate, your task may be easier as you’ll have someone to evaluate your choices with. If you are conducting an apartment search solo, on the other hand, you may need to call in some reinforcements. Bringing a friend or family member along is always a good idea, or you can tag a trusted person to go over the notes and photos from your hunt to help you decide.

Choosing the right apartment feels like such a weighty decision: what if you choose the wrong one and feel stuck in an unhappy situation? Though you can’t control every variable of life in your new apartment, you can be as careful in your selection as possible. Use your instincts to guide your direction, but remain clear-headed about what you want and need and you’ll likely determine the best apartment choice for you.

Thanks to the Internet, finding an apartment for rent takes only a fraction of the time and footwork that it once did. As streamlined as your apartment search is now, there are some steps you can take to make the most of your online search.

Know what you’re looking for
You can save some time on your search if you get a clear picture of what you want before you start apartment hunting. Make a list of the apartment and community features that matter most to you and keep it handy. This will help you eliminate apartments that don’t meet your search criteria.

Get ready to search
Though you’ll have the luxury of conducting your apartment search from the comfort of your desk or sofa, you still need to concentrate. Find a time when you won’t be distracted to begin your hunt.

Keep a note pad and pen nearby too. Though you’ll be able to print out all of the details or keep email notifications about any apartment you’re interested in, making a short list of the ones you like the best and why gives you a convenient snapshot look.

How to search
ApartmentGuide.com makes narrowing your search easy. You can search by city, state or zip or refine your search to include more specific criteria such as number of bedrooms or rental price ranges.

Property details
Many of the property listings on ApartmentGuide.com offer valuable information to help you determine if they are the potential right place for you. You can view floor plans, photos and a vast amount of apartment information, including price, amenities and leasing terms. You can also print out a “printable guide” version of the property details to allow you to refer to property specific information when you are away from your computer. Take advantage of this useful information and you will seriously narrow the list of apartments you want to visit without ever leaving your living room.

With the ApartmentGuide.com apartment finder features, you’ll learn a lot more about your prospective apartment than what’s contained in its four walls. By clicking on the “School and Community Information” link you can get a snapshot of area demographics, as well as schools.

Check availability
When you find an apartment community that interests you, you can contact the property directly from the property listing. Fill out the Check Availability form and click send to send an availability inquiry to the apartment community. You will receive an email list of properties you have contacted so you can keep track of communities that interest you.

Searching on the go
Advances in mobile technology mean that you don’t even have to be at a computer to search for an apartment. Apartment Guide makes it easy to search thousands of apartments for rent from your web-enabled cell phone, iPhone, Android or tablet device.

Next time you need to find another apartment for rent, let your fingers and eyes do the walking. Search online and you can learn nearly everything you want to know about your prospective new home before you even see it for the first time.