Signing A Lease

Signing A Lease: Ready to rock and roll your way to a new place to live?

Have you found the perfect place? Then you need to sign a lease, and quickly. Because until you have a properly and fully executed rental agreement, you don’t have a locked in place. It’s possible someone else could swoop in and snag your place.

So, what’s involved in signing a lease? Three main things.

The Rental Application

The rental application is the usually the first step toward signing a lease. The rental application is a simple document that provides all of your background and contact information. Its like a first step in the process so we know who you are and how to reach you before you move in to our of our places. Although most places in Bloomington charge an rental application fee, we currently do not. In case you run across this fee, you should know that its a common practice and is used to cover administrative costs and labor to process your application and sometimes to perform background checks.

The Lease or Rental Agreement

The rental agreement itself is the next step toward signing a lease. It sets forth your rights and responsibilities as well as those of the landlord, i.e. us! It includes important things like when you can take possession of the place, who is allowed to live there, who is the primary point of communication for all correspondence (and for the returned deposit money when you move out). The lease is really the basic agreement between you and any of your roommates and us. When it doubt, its the first place to turn when trying to determine who needs to do what.

The Deposit

The next thing to handle when signing a lease is the deposit. The deposit is an amount of money you put down to cover any damages you cause while you live in the unit. If you leave the place without any damage and destruction, you get it all back. If you mark up the walls, damage the carpets, melt the siding or have something else happen, then the cost of repairs is deducted from the deposit before the remainder is returned.

Totally trash the place, you may get zero, and may even get a bill. Like a personal home, you have to keep the place in decent shape, and a deposit protects the landlord when you don’t return the place in good shape.

The deposit is usually equal to one of your installment payments.

First and Last Month Payments.

So, in addition to a signed lease and a deposit, you are also responsible for a first and last installment payment. These do not have to be paid when you sign the lease and pay the deposit but they must be paid before you can move-in!

Now your new place is truly signed, sealed, and, almost delivered!

How does it become delivered? You Move In! And that’s a different subject we can help with!

Something different: Leases, Contracts and Mercury Retrograde. So, if you happen to be into astrology, then some people believe its a bad idea to sign a contract of any kind during something called mercury retrograde. In fact, oddly, but truly, “signing a lease during mercury retrograde” is the most frequently search keyword on Google that starts with ‘signing a lease,’ go figure! Heck, you can even check if mercury is in retrograde!

Frequently Asked Questions about Signing A Lease

How do monthly installments work? 12 Installments Plus a SecDep