Apartments. The most common type of housing for rent in the United States. They are located in apartment complexes owned by the management company with which you will enter into a lease agreement (in case of a positive decision). In such apartment complexes there is a leasing office – a place where potential tenants come looking for housing, they are met by a friendly employee, shows and tells what is free, what the cost, etc. Often in apartment complexes are a number of additional facilities (amenities): rooftop (recreational area with couches and grill on the roof), gym, room to work, a small cinema, a lounge, where you can invite friends and so on. Once we even saw a bowling room and a bouldering wall. It is more expensive to rent housing in such complexes. But you can find apartment complexes without the additional facilities, where the cost of housing, respectively, will decrease proportionately.

What is the convenience of such apartment complexes, other than the nice additional benefits listed above? If your washing machine breaks, for example, the socket does not work or there are any other problems, you can easily tell the management, and the problem is solved quickly and easily. For example, our microwave broke down. So we got a new one the same day. A key jammed – in a couple of hours an employee of the complex came and fixed everything. But then again, complexes are different and their management, too.

Condos. This is essentially the same apartments, but each condo has a private owner, and the territory of the complex owners own jointly. Therefore, most renting condos, you conclude a contract with the owner. Less commonly, condos are rented out by managers of management companies. The price of housing is usually lower here. In condos, too, there are amenities. But if you have a breakdown, you will probably have to wait longer (depending on the conscientiousness of the owner).

Houses. Also rented out, but only by private individuals.

Rooms (in the house/apartment). The most affordable option that is great for students, for example. They also rent by private individuals.

Now about the types of apartments. It counts not the number of rooms, but the number of bedrooms (bedroom). Ie allocate studio, 1 (2, 3) bedroom apartment. Thus, a 1 bedroom apartment is essentially a two-room apartment: there is a bedroom, living room, usually connected with the kitchen, and a combined bathroom. Accordingly, 2 and 3 bedroom apartments add bedrooms and possibly a bathroom.

Traditional (classic) one bedroom apartment assumes that all rooms will have at least one window (yes, there are often rooms without windows!) And the walls between these rooms will, firstly, to the ceiling, and secondly, it will really be walls.

The fact is that you often find this type of apartment, such as, for example, open (urban) 1 bedroom. This means that the wall between the bedroom and living room will not reach the ceiling, the bedroom itself often does not have a window, and it is very small in size.

You may also come across an apartment where one wall is replaced by a slide door. The bedroom in such an apartment is also usually smaller and may not have a window.

Why is this the case? Some of the apartments have been converted from studios to 1 BD, where they have tried as much as possible to create a sense of a second room. Now they are building entire complexes with this type of design. For example, in Seattle, where we live, there is a law that says that a bedroom cannot be called a bedroom if it doesn’t have a window and a walk-in closet, so they called it an urban (open) 1 bedroom. This is a more budget version of housing, which is great for a person who rents alone. And you can cram more apartments into the building.

A little more about the strangeness of local housing: Our bedroom, for example, has no light, not at all. There is no room for a light bulb in the ceiling. I didn’t notice at first, because it hadn’t occurred to me that this could happen. But then it was explained to me that this is not uncommon in older homes. I had to buy the light fixtures.

Of course, very beautiful and wonderful look photos from the sites of apartment complexes. In real life, everything is a bit easier, without Photoshop.