A new Renter's Repair Guide for newbie tenants: What to do when the power goes out in your apartment

When the power goes out in your apartment, there's a good chance that you've simply overloaded a circuit and tripped a breaker. Most experienced apartment dwellers have probably come up against this room-darkening, appliance-quieting nuisance a time or two before, and they know exactly how to locate their circuit breaker panels and flip a tripped breaker back on.

But if you've never done it, it can be a little intimidating. Even worse: You know it's supposed to be easy, so you might feel a little silly asking for help.

So I've written a new Renter's Repair Guide how-to especially for newbie tenants. "Help! My Power Went Out" features step-by-step guidance on fixing an isolated electrical outage for those who have never done it before.

It also includes tips on how to decide if your power outage really is something you can handle or if you'll need to call your apartment manager and schedule maintenance to come take a look.

Good luck! Follow the link above to my latest Renter's Repair Guide and I promise you'll do fine.




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Garbage disposal on the fritz?

Before you call the landlord or apartment manager to address the clank, buzz or total dead silence of your garbage disposal, follow these Renter's Repair Guide tips for a few easy fixes to try.

Note: It may be worth your while! Some landlords will charge you a maintenance fee if they have to send maintenance to fish a bottle cap, dish rag or children's toy out of your disposal. When I worked as an apartment manager, the No. 1 reason a tenant's garbage disposal would be "broken" was due to something that went down the sink that wasn't supposed to go there.

So roll up your sleeves and good luck!

It's spring, and lots of apartment leases are coming up for renewal

... is yours?

If you're content with your apartment, you may be wondering if you should renew your lease for another year or go month-to-month.

From my latest article:

"Make the wrong choice and you could find yourself later going through the hassle and financial difficulty of breaking your apartment lease or, even worse, you could at some point find yourself scrambling for a new place to live."

Read more: Renewing Your Apartment Lease: Month-to-Month vs. 12-Month Leases

Ode to a career in property managment

Hey, good news for me: I've been named a featured real estate contributor at Associated Content. View my library of articles for landlords, tenants and apartment hunters here!

I just knew that job would be good for something eventually.

Cold-weather apartment hunting can give away a landlord's secrets

Time is running out for cold-weather apartment hunting!

Generally, the arrival of spring is all-around a good thing, true. But if you're apartment hunting, the shortcut to finding out all you really want to know about a prospective apartment is to view it in the wintertime.

Figure out how you'll be treated as a tenant year-round and what the building's condition really is, by reading my tips for super-savvy apartment hunters here.