 TITLE: How to Rent Your First Apartment CONTENT: Spend Time Researching Neighborhoods\n------------------------------------\nFinding a place where you both want to live and can afford to live is the key here. Popular sites for apartment hunting like Apartments.com and Rent.com provide helpful maps, but you should go a step farther with sites like AreaVibes.com, which offer a window into a community's atmosphere and can show you research on the local crime rates.\nIt's important to rent in an area where you feel safe, so peruse neighborhoods you're considering both during the day and at night. This also gives you the opportunity to gauge the local environment: You may be absolutely thrilled that the bar across the street has music thumping until the wee hours of the night; then again, you may not be so thrilled. Get a feel for the area to know.\nPay attention to current or upcoming construction, too, and determine whether the location works with your commute. Checking Google Maps, which factors in traffic and other obstacles, can help here, as can doing a mock commute from your potential abode to work. A gorgeous kitchen might not be worth it if you find out a nearby elementary school starts just before your job's start time. Find out about those things now, before you're late for work, stuck fuming behind a line of school buses. END