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Renting an Apartment in Oklahoma
What You Should Know
Oklahoma is a state located in the southern Great Plains and Eastern
Woodlands regions of the United States. It is sometimes called "Native America"
and the "Sooner State", and is part of a region commonly known as the American
"Heartland." Oklahoma City is the state's capital and largest city. The
Congressional Quarterly and Census report place Oklahoma in the Southern United
States. However, since Oklahoma is near the geographic center of the U.S., the
regional influences add to Oklahoma's unique character.
Oklahoma became the 46th state in the Union on November 16th, 1907. The state's
name comes from the Choctaw words okla meaning people and homma meaning red,
literally meaning "red people" and was chosen by Allen Wright, Principal
Chief of the Choctaw Nation during the 1866 treaty negotiations. It is a state
with a colorful history, including its days as a frontier state, it being a
destination of recently freed slaves looking for opportunity and equality, and
being at the heart of the oil boom in the early 20th century.
Most notably, Oklahoma has the nation's second largest American Indian
population. In honor of its large American Indian population, and for tourism
purposes, Oklahoma is called "Native America." Oklahoma's early history is
intertwined with the Trail of Tears, which was the forced removal of the Five
Civilized Tribes from the southeastern United States to present-day Oklahoma. As
a testament to the state's western and American Indian heritage, Oklahoma
(Tulsa) is the home of the world-renowned Gilcrease Museum, which houses the
world's largest, most comprehensive collection of American Western art and
artifacts, as well as an unparalleled collection of American Indian, Central and
South American art, artifacts, documents, and maps.
Oklahoma is one of the six states on the Frontier Strip. It is bounded on the
east by Arkansas and Missouri, on the north by Kansas and northwest by Colorado
(both at 37°N), on the far west by New Mexico (at 103°W), and on the south and
near-west by Texas. The panhandle's southern boundary is at 36.5°N, then turning
due south along 100°W to the southern fork of the Red River), completing the
round trip back to Arkansas.
Oklahoma's four main mountain ranges include the Ouachitas, Arbuckles, Wichitas,
and the Kiamichis. In addition to several smaller ranges, Oklahoma also notably
encompasses a portion of the Ozarks.
The state's highest peak, 4,973 feet (1,515 m) Black Mesa, resides in the far
northwestern corner of the panhandle near the town of Kenton. The lowest
elevation in the state is in the far southeastern corner, near Idabel, at 324
feet (99 m). Oklahoma also has what is officially considered the highest hill in
the world, Cavanal Hill, at 1,999 feet (609 m); this is considering the fact
that a "mountain" is anything 2,000 feet or higher. It is located in Poteau,
Oklahoma.
With 200 man-made lakes, Oklahoma has more man-made lakes than any other state
and boasts over one million surface-acres of water and 2,000 more miles (3,200
km) of shoreline than the Atlantic and Gulf coasts combined. Lake Eufaula is the
largest lake in the state, covering 102,000 surface acres (413 km²) of water.
Some Things to Consider When Looking for an Apartment...
When searching for a new apartment make sure to take your time to think
through what are the most important things to you in an apartment and plan your
search based on those priorities. Here are some things to consider when planning
your move:
1. Consider the areas where you would like to live
* What is the crime rate?
* If you have children - what rating does the local school system have?
* Is there area convenient shopping, health and recreation services in the area?
2. Make a list of your housing priorities
* Do you have pets?
* Do you need parking?
* Do you need to be on the ground floor?
* What amenities are important to you - swimming pool, fitness room, in unit
laundry?
3. Evaluate the building
* What is the condition of the unit and building?
* Are the grounds maintained?
* Are windows, steps, and railings in good condition?
* View the property at night. Is it safe and well lit?
4. The security of the property
* Are there security service? When is the guard on duty?
* Does the building have controlled access?
* Does each unit have secure door and window locks?
5. Talk to the neighbors
* Ask other residents whether they are satisfied with the building.
6. Amenities
* Who is allowed to use the amenities?
* When are they open?
* Are the fees charged to use those facilities included in rent?
7. Ask about Utilities
* Does the owner or tenant pay the utility bills?
* Are any utilities included with monthly rent?
* Do units have separate thermostats to control heat and air conditioning?
8. Review the lease
* How much notice must you give before moving out?
* Can the rent be increased? If so, by how much and how often?
* Are pets allowed?
* What is the security deposit and cleaning costs upon move out?
* What is the responsibility of tenants for damage to property?
* Is there a penalty for breaking a lease?
9. Information too bring to a lease signing
* Credit Report
* Pay stubs/tax returns
* Reference
* Application
More Apartment Information
An apartment (or flat in Britain and most other Commonwealth countries) is a
self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building. Apartments
may be owned (by an owner-occupier) or rented (by tenants).
Some apartment-dwellers own their apartments, either as co-ops, in which the
residents own shares of a corporation that owns the building or development; or
in condominiums, whose residents own their apartments and share ownership of the
public spaces. Most apartments are in buildings designed for the purpose, but
large older houses are sometimes divided into apartments. The word apartment
connotes a residential unit or section in a building. Apartment building owners,
lessors, or managers often use the more general word units to refer to
apartments. Units can be used to refer to rental business suites as well as
residential apartments. When there is no tenant occupying an apartment, the
lessor is said to have a vacancy. For apartment lessors, each vacancy represents
a loss of income from rent-paying tenants for the time the apartment is vacant
(i.e., unoccupied). Lessors' objectives are often to minimize the vacancy rate
for their units. The owner of the apartment typically transfers possession to
the occupant by giving him/her the key to the apartment entrance door and any
other keys need to live there, such as a common key to the building or any other
common areas, and an individual unit mailbox key. When the occupant move out,
these keys should typically be returned to the owner.
Apartments can be classified into several types. Studio, efficiency, bed-sit, or
bachelor apartments tend to be the smallest apartments with the cheapest rents
in a given area. These kinds of apartment usually consist mainly of a large room
which is the living, dining, and bedroom combined. There are usually kitchen
facilities as part of this central room, but the bathroom is its own smaller
separate room. Moving up from the efficiencies are one-bedroom apartments where
one bedroom is a separate room from the rest of the apartment. Then there are
two-bedroom, three-bedroom, etc. apartments. Small apartments often have only
one entrance/exit. Large apartments often have two entrances/exits, perhaps a
door in the front and another in the back. Depending on the building design, the
entrance/exit doors may be directly to the outside or to a common area inside,
such as a hallway. Depending on location, apartments may be available for rent
furnished with furniture or unfurnished into which a tenant usually moves in
with his/her own furniture. Permanent carpeting is often included in an
apartment.
Laundry facilities are usually kept in a separate area accessible to all the
tenants in the building. Depending on when the building was built and the design
of the building, utilities such as water, heating, and electric may be common
for all the apartments in the building or separate for each apartment and billed
separately to each tenant (however, many areas in the US have ruled it illegal
to split a water bill among all the tenants, especially if a pool is on the
premises). Outlets for connection to telephones are typically included in
apartments. Telephone service is optional and is practically always billed
separately from the rent payments. Cable television and similar amenities are
extra also. Parking space, air conditioner, and extra storage space may or may
not be included with an apartment. Rental leases often limit the maximum number
of people who can reside in each apartment. On or around the ground floor of the
apartment building, a series of mailboxes are typically kept in a location
accessible to the public and, thus, to the letter-carrier too. Every unit
typically gets its own mailbox with individual keys to it. Some very large
apartment buildings with a full-time staff may take mail from the mailman and
provide mail-sorting service. Near the mailboxes or some other location
accessible by outsiders, there may be a buzzer (equivalent to a doorbell) for
each individual unit. In smaller apartment buildings such as two- or
three-flats, or even four-flats, garbage is often disposed of in trash
containers similar to those used at houses. In larger buildings, garbage is
often collected in a common trash bin or dumpster. For cleanliness or minimizing
noise, many lessors will place restrictions on tenants regarding keeping pets in
an apartment.
In some parts of the world, the word apartment is used generally to refer to a
new purpose-built self-contained residential unit in a building, whereas the
word flat means a converted self-contained unit in an older building. An
industrial, warehouse, or commercial space converted to an apartment is commonly
called a loft.
When part of a house is converted for the ostensible use of a landlord's family
member, the unit may be known as an in-law apartment or granny flat, though
these (sometimes illegally) created units are often occupied by ordinary renters
rather than family members. In Canada these suites are commonly located in the
basements of houses and are therefore normally called basement suites.
Staying in privately owned apartments rather than in a hotel is quickly becoming
popular with travelers.