Factors to Consider When Leasing an Apartment

For those who grew up in cities, leasing an apartment can be pretty simple. For others who might’ve grown up in more rural areas, leasing an apartment can be a daunting task. With so many great colleges and universities here in Albuquerque, it’s actually a pretty common situation.

If you’re currently looking to lease your first ever apartment, there are some considerations you might not have thought of. Fortunately, we’re here to help! We found a great article on The Huffington Post last week featuring a list of things to consider as you take this big step towards independence and urban living. Here are some of our favorites:

Narrow your search by price and location.

According to Doug Culkin, President and CEO of the National Apartment Association, those are the two biggest factors you should consider when selecting an apartment.

We'd all love to live in an apartment straight out of Friends, but I'm going to drop a truth bomb: Monica and Rachel never could have afforded their place in Greenwich Village. If you settle on a place that's above your means and fall behind on rent payments, pulling a Ross and claiming you were "on a break" isn't going to fly with your apartment owner. Choose wisely.

(And for the record, Rachel and Ross were so not on a break.)

Find a community with a reputable management company or owner that meets your price and location criteria, and also offers the specific amenities you're looking for.

The National Apartment Association (NAA) has a network of affiliated member companies that provide quality, affordable rental housing and follow NAA's suggested best practices.

Once you've called your local apartment association and verified that the management company is a member of NAA, consider which amenities mean the most to you and narrow your results accordingly.

A fire pit, billiards room, state-of-the-art fitness center and poolside cabanas may all seem like "must haves," but you have to ask yourself which amenities you'll actually use. I'm a charitable individual, but I resent my monthly donations to Gold's Gym. Be honest with yourself.

Click here for the full list of things to consider before leasing an apartment!

Learn to Love the Morning!

Hi Courtyards! Hope you’ve all recovered from Daylight Savings Time and have returned (more or less) to your normal routines.

Speaking of routines, we saw a really interesting blog post last week we thought we’d share--and hopefully you don’t hate the morning too much. Why?

Because according to multiple studies cited in last week’s Lifehacker.com article, “The Best Time of Day for Creative Thinking,” it turns out the morning is far and away the best time to get the majority of your work done.

Here are some of the most interesting nuggets from their post:

The Best Time to Write Is Early in the Morning

Your experience with writing may contradict this morning advice, and I hear you. The consensus on a single best writing time is very much up in the air. There is still a lot we don't know about body rhythms and the writing process. But we can make some projections based on what we do know.

We Know That the Creative Mind Rises Early and the Editing Mind Sleeps In

Bouts of creative writing might be easier to come by just after waking as this is the time of day when the prefrontal cortex is most active. A scientific study of brain circuits confirmed that this creative activity is highest during and immediately after sleep, while the analytical parts of the brain (the editing and proofreading parts) become more active as the day goes on. The study looked at morning and evening MRI scans and observed that mornings showed more connections in the brain—a key element to the creative process.

The Best Time to Get Ideas is Right After Waking

Ever notice how you get some really stellar ideas while showering? As mentioned above, creativity peaks in the morning as the creative connections in our brains are most active. If you believe that creativity is your best source for ideation, then the early morning should be your best time for new thoughts.

Click here for the full article on Lifehacker.com!

Bachelor Pads 101

If you’re a prototypical “dude” who knows little about design and home decor, it’s possible your apartment is just, well, an apartment. But in order to take things to the next level living as a male on your own, what you really want to shoot for is a classy bachelor pad.

But you don’t quite need to have an apartment worthy of the TV show Friends to have a legitimate bachelor bad - it can be done simply and cheaply. Over at ApartmentGuide.com’s blog, they offered up some practical tips on transforming your apartment into a bachelor pad:

Age up your furniture

The #1 bachelor pad botch is keeping furniture from college.

Milk crates for bookshelves? No. Puffy black pleather sofa? No. Cinderblock bed frame. No, no and absolutely not.

You can class up your apartment design affordably if you shop smart. The easiest way to transform your look to a more adult, sophisticated style is to go for sleek modern furniture. Take a look at the IKEA catalog. Now get that stuff.

Prep a party-ready pantry

An accomplished bachelor is ready to host a bash for 2 or 20 at a moment’s notice. You never know when your latest love interest will decide to pop by — or an impromptu poker night will break out. Bachelor apartment essentials might include pantry items like these:

12 beers (microbrews)

2 bottles of wine (red & white)

2 bottles of decent booze (Vodka, bourbon, rum… your preferences are important.)

2-liter of club soda

The Cadillacs of snacks: peanuts, M&Ms, potato chips, all your faves

Assorted frozen pizzas (California Pizza Kitchen is an excellent choice.)

French Onion Dip

An assortment of take-out menus

Just make sure you are comfortable serving what you can source from your bachelor kitchen.

Do what comes naturally

Your initial apartment design urges might make you feel like you must create a man cave. Resist those feelings and one-up your friends by making your space special AND more universally-appealing.

Sure, “themes” sound like something only interior decorators care about, but creating a theme for your apartment makes decking it out easier. Pick a topic you totally dig, like baseball, comic books, classic cars, vintage vinyl, folk art or whatever you might while away a weekend obsessing over.

Add an element of surprise

Any savvy bachelor keeps people guessing. One of the easiest ways to add the unexpected to your bachelor pad is to use color. Most guys resort to basic black when they are picking a palette — but you can design a bit more advanced than that.

Try shades of gray (the ladies love it!) and a grown-up red accent color. Dark purple, royal blue, and deep orange are other manly shades that look great on pillows, rugs, chairs, artwork — they’ll give your home a high-end feel.

Click here for the full ApartmentGuides article.

The Courtyards is a Top Rated Apartment Community!

The Courtyards is proud to be recognized as a Top Rated Apartment Community for 2013, by ApartmentRatings.com!

Thanks to all our residents who have left us a positive review on the site over the past few months. We look forward to continuing to improve our community and winning many more awards to come!

ApartmentRatings.com (www.apartmentratings.com), the leading website for user reviews of apartments, today announced the 5,521 winners of the 2012 ApartmentRatings.com Top Rated Awards.

Only about 5% of all the communities listed on ApartmentRatings.com qualify for award consideration, making winning a Top Rated award an exclusive accomplishment. Winning communities demonstrated a combination of outstanding resident satisfaction ratings and excellent recommendation ratings, as reported by actual residents on ApartmentRatings.com throughout 2012.

A Silver Lining in Construction?

For those of you who take Paseo del Norte/I-25 regularly, you’re probably all too familiar with the detours and disruption as of late. But although it might make you late getting home from time to time, believe it or not, there are some positives coming out of all these changes!

Last week, KOB4 featured a story about how the detours are actually improving business for Vic’s Daily Café on Osuna. “We’ve had a few that have gotten caught in traffic and they’ll look over and see our sign and, and they’ll stop,” said Victor Pandazis, owner of Vic’s.

Vic’s is known for its nostalgic homestyle decor, the chicken fried steak, and its expansive breakfast menu. You can read some reviews from locals about their food over at UrbanSpoon.com, such as this one from NM Gastronome:

Similar to other popular breakfast destinations in town (Milton’s, Lindy’s and the Western View Diner come to mind), Vic’s embraces its Greek heritage.  Commemorative plates and framed posters from Greece adorn the restaurant’s stark walls while the menu is festooned with Greek favorites.  Who wouldn’t love breakfast if you had your choice of Greek, New Mexican or American fare, all of it good?

If you show up for breakfast craving something Greek, choices abound. Whether for breakfast or lunch, envious eyes will trail the wait staff as they deliver a platter of Greek appetizers to your table.  Nestled on a bed of crispy leaf lettuce are stuffed grape leaves, hunks of feta cheese, lip-puckering pepperonici, plumb and juicy Kalamata olives, fresh cucumbers and thinly sliced tomatoes, all drizzled with olive oil.  Wedges of warm pita bread on a plate complete this luscious starter.

Located along one of the popular alternate routes along Paseo Del Norte/I-25, Vic’s is located at:

3600 Osuna Rd NE #105, Albuquerque, NM 87109

(505) 341-9710

So although the construction is certainly inconvenient, think of it as an opportunity to get to know some local businesses that would otherwise go unnoticed.

Click here to read more about how the detours mean big business at Vic’s!