[PeppyGPhiB]

- Check to see if the apartment complex has been reviewed on Apartmentratings.com. It's pretty easy to tell on there when some people are full of crap, but do look for a pattern of the same complaints.

- When you're checking out the apartment, note the amount of storage and closets.

- I don't know about you, but I MUST have a washer and dryer in the apartment. I will NEVER go back to using communal laundry facilities...it was bad enough in college, and I KNEW those people. Plus you have to pay and sit around waiting for laundry with a shared or coin-op place.

- Give a call to the local police to find out whether they've had a lot of issues reported at the complex. I usually ask about car break-ins, since apartment complexes attract them.

- Ask the management how they figure utilities, particularly water/sewer. Different places do it differently, and you want to make sure you're only paying for what YOU use, not an average of the whole complex.