How to find a place to live in America?

When you first come to the United States, you may want to find a place to live soon, unless you have business accommodation arrangements. In some cases, if you have further long-term residence plans, some private organizations will also provide temporary accommodation. At first, you may stay in hotels, temporary apartments, or relatives who have settled in the United States. But when you start looking for a long-term residence, various problems follow: how to find a suitable apartment? Will I have my own house? How to buy? Here are some answers to these questions.

Rent a house or an apartment and find a suitable place.

When renting a house or apartment, the first thing to consider is safety. The cheapest (and affordable) apartment is often not in the safest place. Therefore, it is necessary to ask others about the areas with relatively low crime rate in the town. You can ask your neighbors near the house or apartment you are interested in. Then drive straight to see it. Is the house or apartment clean and tidy? Will there be a crow on every window? You can also ask the local police station or community organizations about different neighborhoods.

The second thing to consider is whether the house or apartment is close to your workplace. If possible, you don't want to spend two hours driving to work and two hours coming back every day. What's more, the extra gas bill may save more money than your "cheap" rent. So generally speaking, finding a suitable apartment requires comprehensive consideration of various factors, including what schools are there nearby? What facilities (public transport facilities? Good medical facilities? Shopping center? )。 If you have relatives and friends who are also renting, maybe they will provide you with some experience.

After finding a suitable house or apartment for rent, you need to sign a lease with the landlord (the owner of the house or apartment), also called a contract. The lease stipulates some terms between you and the landlord, including the lease term and lease conditions. Lease is a legal document to protect the rights and interests of both you and the landlord.

Sometimes the lease is long and the monthly rent will be lower. You can check this. But you may just want to sign a lease for half a year or one year, so that you can move to another place or buy your own house after the lease expires.

The amount of the deposit will be stipulated in the lease. The deposit is the money that the landlord asks you to pay in advance to ensure that the house is intact after the expiration of your contract (otherwise, you will deduct the money for cleaning and painting when you leave). The amount pledged varies from region to region. Generally equivalent to one month's rent. The monthly rent will be stated in the lease.

The lease will stipulate the number of people allowed to live in this house, including your children or pets. Therefore, it is very important to read and fully understand the full text of the lease before signing the contract. Because once you sign it, it means that you have accepted and promised the terms listed in the lease. If you have language barriers, you may wish to ask bilingual relatives and friends to translate and explain the lease terms.

Another way of leasing is subletting. In other words, it's not the landlord who signed the lease with you. The lease term can be shorter (such as monthly rent or three-month rent). The lease is a legal document, which can protect you according to the treaty when there is a dispute between the two parties. So, you must put the lease in a safe place. Signing a lease between the two parties is the only way for you to rent a house, and it must not be based on verbal agreement between the two parties.

Decorate your house or apartment.

Whether the house or apartment has been renovated. Decorated houses generally provide furniture, but the monthly rent is also high. Houses or apartments without furniture are usually equipped with refrigerators and stoves, but you must also buy or rent furniture.

There are many places to buy furniture. You can go to the department store, or inquire about the relevant columns from the advertising page of the local newspaper, or ask people in your district about the best place to buy. Sometimes, you can find a good price when you have a discount in the furniture warehouse, when you auction furniture, or through newspaper advertising information. The prices of the same or similar furniture are different when they are discounted in different shopping malls. It is best to shop around before making a final decision.

Public facilities such as water, electricity and cable TV may not be included in your monthly rent. If not, you must apply for these facilities. You can ask the landlord for the contact number of the local public utility company, or you can look it up in the local telephone yellow pages. Then contact these public service companies and tell us when you want to connect these facilities and your address. A bill including installation fee or deposit will be sent to you later. There are different ways according to different regions.

The following explanation will help you understand the terms in the rental advertisement. Classified advertisements are often charged by word number or size, so abbreviations are common.

For example, you see such an advertisement, "The rent is 3 pounds, and the air conditioner, rent and utilities are 750 dollars per second. The deposit is $600, no pets. " Refers to a three-bedroom apartment for rent, with air conditioning (A/C) and furniture ("no furniture" means no furniture). The monthly rent is $750, including utilities. A deposit of $600 is required. In this advertisement, it is also indicated that pets are not allowed in Ben apartment. Some apartments are also allowed to keep small pets, but they need more deposit and must promise to pay compensation if there is any damage.

One of the best ways to find a house is to look for the Sunday edition of the local newspaper, which has a real estate or rental column in the classified advertisement. You can also ask about your relatives and friends at work. Many real estate agents can also help you rent. Some professional leasing agents can help you rent a house, but be careful. Sometimes their advertising brochures ("leaflets") will ask you to call. In fact, the houses they mentioned below the market price are all fictitious and do not exist. So be sure to find a prestigious rental agent and tell you frankly what kind of house you are looking for and your rental budget.

estate/house agent

In America, most buyers buy and sell houses through real estate companies. Real estate companies hire real estate agents or brokers to help buyers buy and sell houses. Most cities have some famous real estate companies, such as Century 2 1 Coldwell Banker. There are also some small local housing agencies in many places, which are also quite good. One of the ways to find a suitable housing agent is to listen to some suggestions through relatives and friends who have already bought a house. Local community organizations also provide some information, including whether there are bilingual real estate agents when there are language barriers.

Your real estate agent needs to know the price range, number of rooms, size and other information of the house you are looking for. The more detailed the plan in advance, the easier the process of finding a house. Once you find the house you like, the housing agency will guide you to report the housing, listen to the seller's counter-offer and conduct further housing negotiations. They can also help with some related paperwork and usually help you find a title company. The company will check whether the assets you intend to buy have been liquidated (no existing debts or other problems).

Most states have laws and regulations that require homeowners to clarify the facts, and require sellers not to deceive or attempt to conceal the defects of the house, such as the age of the house, the condition of the roof, or whether there are structural problems in the house, otherwise it is illegal. Be sure to ask more about the housing situation, pay attention to relevant answers and safeguard your rights and interests. You can also go to the local library to find information about house sales. There are also some good books that provide tips on finding a house and answers to related questions, which are also very helpful to you.

Some states have set up trust accounts as credit accounts for buying houses. This means that you have to deposit a part of the purchase amount into this account, which will remain until the end of the whole purchase process (that is, all the documents have been signed, but you have actually purchased). There are also other States that can wait until the real end of the purchase before transferring funds.

You may need a special loan called a mortgage to buy a house. Banks or other lending institutions, such as housing loan companies, will check your credit history before deciding whether to provide you with loans and the amount of loans. Loans are generally repaid to banks on a monthly basis and over many years (for example, twenty or thirty years).

A credit history check may include calling your employer to ask about your employment status, your monthly income and years of employment. The bank will also compare the prices of similar houses in the area where you buy the house to ensure that the loan is also a good investment compared with the bank. The housing prices in different cities, different states and different communities vary greatly. Some loan projects, such as Fannie Mae and HUD, have strict requirements on housing conditions before purchase. Most loan companies need some special inspections, such as termite inspection and roof maintenance, before approving housing loans.

Some banks set up some projects to help new immigrants buy houses. They are willing to cooperate with legal immigrants who are not American citizens and have not established credit records. So you have to find out which banks in this city are willing to provide loans to immigrants, and where others get housing loans and car loans. Some local banks have unwritten loan plans to help buyers who have just arrived in China. These loan projects are supported by the new American promotion project of Fannie Mae Foundation. They also provide some courses on how to buy a house for these new buyers. The New American Initiative also provides some home purchase guides in nine languages to help overcome the language barrier. Fannie Mae has approved some big banks, which are reforming their plans to help immigrants buy houses.

You can also contact local community organizations or ethnic minority committees and seek help from organizations that provide loans. In some big cities, these institutions also provide some courses on financial management and house purchase, which is very helpful.