Apartment Blog

According to Wikipedia, a credit score “is a numerical expression based on a statistical analysis of a person’s credit files, to represent the creditworthiness of that person, which is the perceived likelihood that the person will pay debts in a timely manner.” Lenders typically assess the potential risk involved in lending money to consumers by using these scores to determine who is qualified and at what percentage rate. These lenders include banks and credit card companies. This number not only affects your ability to get a loan, but also influences insurance companies, potential employers and apartment communities. When you go to apply for an apartment, your credit score is going to be checked! Do you know what it’s going to say?

Everyone is entitled to one free credit report every 12 months. One of the major agencies that provide credit reports are Experian, which has it’s their own method of calculating your credit score. Finding out your credit score, which range between 300-850, will make you informed so you know when to correct errors or work on a better score in the future.

To get your Free Credit Score, visit ForRent.com. On our Relocation Page we offer the opportunity for you to check your credit score with freecreditreport.com. Take the first step to knowing where you stand and check your score today!

Green doesn’t just have to be the color for your party, make it the theme!! Green living can extend to how you entertain! Making it green is easy on the environment and easy for you to do! Mimicking the tips we’ve already given you for St. Patrick’s Day Party Ideas, we’ve matched some eco-friendly ones. Check out these tips:

Tip 1: Invitations
As I always suggest, send out electronic invitations. Besides giving your party a more casual tone, you also save on paper that is just going to be thrown out later.  Or if you’re party is going to be formal and dictates having an invite, try to use recycled paper invitations.

Tip 2: Decorations
Just for the sheer expense, I always try to recommend fun crafty ideas for holiday decorations. Take a look at our St. Patrick’s Day Party ideas. But it turns out, not only will these save you money; they are also more environmentally friendly! Making your decorations would be a creative and a fun thing for you and your friends or kids to do.  And as much as it hurts, my favorite party staple that I always recommend–balloons–is actually pretty bad for the environment! They often end up in the ocean where they are consumed by sea life, which eventually die from balloons blocking their digestive system. So looks like all my ballooning days are over! 

Tip 3: Food & Drinks
A cute and easy idea to avoid waste is serving finger food. By serving finger food, you alleviate the need to have utensils or plates.  Your guest can just have their little sandwiches, cheese & crackers, cookies, chips on napkins.  And if you want to save on purchasing cups, offer your guests canned or bottled beverages. You can recycle them when they are done!  Wow, this tip allows you to save on a little bit of money as well! Cha-ching!

Tip 4: Entertainment
If you’ve read our blog about St. Patrick’s Day  Party ideas then you know we suggest doing contests, having music or a movie playing in the background.  These ideas don’t require too many materials. But another idea I’d like to add is doing Karaoke! You don’t necessarily have to have a machine (although it helps), but just grab a bunch of your already ‘tipsy’ friends for some movin and groovin and perhaps a little singing!  This should make for a lot of entertainment!! 

While we are making suggestions about how to make your St. Patrick’s Day party more eco-friendly, please remember these tips can certainly be used for your other parties.  If you’re having a Birthday celebration soon, think about using some of these ideas. Not only are you helping the environment but you also may be saving some money in the process!! Bonus!!

Source: Progressivekid.com

It’s no secret that rents are skyrocketing all over
the United
States. People are constantly looking at ways
to save money as the cost of living increases. One thought I find extremely interesting
is that couples are now ‘shacking’ up to save some money!!

According to the Census Bureau’s latest research,
there were an estimated 6.02 million unmarried-partner households in the
U.S. in 2006! Forbes.com researched these cities by
collecting data for 40 of the largest metropolitan statistical areas for five
different categories: marriages per 1,000 people, divorces per 1,000 people,
starter-home affordability, income disparity and availability of couples or
family counseling.

The round-up of the best cities for couples
were:

1. Dallas

2. Houston

3. Minneapolis

4. Denver

5. Austin, Texas

This is interesting news on Valentine’s Day!! We’ve
posted numerous blogs about the benefits of having a roommate, so why not
make that roommate your sweetheart!

For more information about how these cities were
selected, visit Forbes.com or Realestate.msn.

Forbes has complied a list of cities that have the most expensive commutes in the nation; some siphon 20% of income!!

Transit costs such as gas, tolls and public transit fare, as well as money spent on car payments and maintenance make commutes expensive. Topping the list is Houston, Texas with 20.9 percent of expenses that are spent on transportation!!  Cities that follow are Cleveland, Detroit, Tampa and Kansas City with 20.2 % - 20.5 % of income dedicated to transportation.

According to the study conducted, there are several factors that attribute to these large transportation costs in these cities. One is the fact that they do not have a train system. The study found that there is a very high correlation between cities that had extensive train systems and those in which households spent the least on transportation costs. It also appears that the cities with the higher commutes tend to have lower housing costs. So on the reverse side, it is understood that the least costly commutes tend to be accompanied by high housing costs.

Here are the stats:

Souce: Forbes.com