Things you think you can change about your apartment.

A sense of optimism is a wonderful thing to have when hunting for a new apartment. It can be a trying time for anyone when such an important aspect as home becomes a constant source of worry, so a positive attitude can never hurt. Unfortunately, there is a distinct difference between a positive attitude and turning a blind eye to aspects of a potential new home that you will not be able to change.

For instance, nature has a bounty of creatures, many of which would like nothing more than to occupy your space. Exterminators are, of course, an option for situations like roaches, rats, and the like, but if the place you’re looking at has visible crickets or spiders, then you should be aware that a lot of times, extermination technology might not be able to take care of your problems as well as you’d hope- spiders and crickets travel up on their legs, not down on the ground, and thus they don’t get poison on their thorax.

Also, if the heating system looks to have been installed in or before the 50s (and specifically we mean those wall-length heat bar things), you should find out what steps have been taken to make them safer. It also never hurts to check with other tenants in the building to find out about other things which may not be obvious on first glance.