If you haven’t tried to find an apartment for rent in a popular (or heavily populated) city, be prepared. In cities like San Francisco and New York, finding an affordable apartment is almost impossible. For every apartment that becomes available, hundreds of potential tenants are vying for it. With enough preparation and a little interaction, you can find a decent and affordable apartment in almost any city.

So you want to move to a hot city or just want to move to a new place in a hot city, but you don’t know where to start. Timing is critical in the real estate game and finding a rental is just a matter of persistence and preparation.

If you are low on time or just don’t want to handle the search yourself, there are other options for you. One option includes apartment brokers. Apartment brokers get paid to find you an apartment (or other rental) within a city. They usually have up-to-date information on units as they become available, while the typical consumer is waiting around for ads in the newspapers or ads in free apartment guides. However, in hot cities, waiting means losing out. Some brokers charge the apartment complex a fee rather than the potential renter. Be sure to ask about the rates and if the broker can guarantee success within a specific time limit. Ask about rebate offers when you rent with specific communities.

Your best option is to network. Ask friends about friends or family living in the desired location. Talk to members of your church, school, work or other organizations about potential contacts. Browse through online bulletin boards and community websites that involve people living in your future location.

Getting an apartment in a densely populated location is going to be difficult and will require a lot of persistence and work. If you are moving to a new city, begin researching the city. Learn which areas are expensive, dirt cheap, and reasonable. Look at nearby suburbs and cities. The broader your range, the higher the probability of finding an available unit. Search online and paper guides about apartment complexes in those areas. Call each one and get an idea of how often rentals become available, the price range of rentals, and if there is a waiting list. Call back often. Visit websites of complexes and online rental services and sign up for any mailing list available. Keep an eye on the financial market of the city. If companies are laying off, closing down, or moving out, more renters might be leaving the city.

One of the biggest problems that people who live in apartments is the fact that there simply is not enough room to display everything or even to store everything. This means that no matter what you do the space tends to look cluttered or even messy. There are a few simple things however that you can do that can help you to provide a clutter free apartment.

One of the biggest things about clutter is the fact that it tends to grow and that can make it difficult to manage. It is simply by nature that people want to store things preferably for use at a later date. The problem with this is that often times that later date never actually comes and you are left with stacks, piles and bins full of things that you do not use and simply take up space you do not have to devote to it.

One of the first steps to take care of this problem and eliminating clutter from your apartment is to make the determination that you do not have to keep hold of every little thing. For example, keeping every paper your child every brought home from school can amass an incredible amount of paper. Go though these things and pick out pieces to highlight development, growth or creativity and eliminate the rest. The same goes for everything else. If you do not need it now it is doubtful you will need it at a later date so these items can be weeded out.