How to Tour a Student Apartment Like a Pro: 15-Point Checklist

A student apartment tour is a fifteen-minute window to spot problems that will follow you for an entire lease. Most students walk in, glance at the bedroom, like the kitchen, and sign. Then in October the heat goes out, in February the bathroom mold becomes obvious, and the property manager stops answering texts. None of that needed to happen if you’d known what to look for.

This is the checklist I wish someone had handed me before my first lease. Run through every point. Take pictures. Trust your nose, your gut, and the floors.

Before You Tour

A few things to do before you ever set foot in the unit, because half of bad tours are bad because students didn’t prep.

1. Pull the building’s reviews. Google Reviews, FMP reviews, even Reddit. Look for patterns — one angry tenant is noise, ten angry tenants saying the same thing is a real problem. If maintenance complaints repeat, that’s your sign.

2. Confirm what unit you’re seeing. Ask explicitly: am I touring my unit, or a model unit? “The actual unit you’ll lease” should be the answer. If it’s a model, ask whether there’s an identical floor plan you can also see.

3. Bring a phone with charged battery, a measuring tape (or use the iPhone Measure app), and a notes app open. You will forget which apartment had the squeaky door if you tour three in one afternoon.

The 15-Point In-Tour Checklist

Run this with the property manager standing right there. Do not be shy. You are about to commit to twelve months and several thousand dollars.

4. Check the front door and locks. Does the deadbolt actually engage? Are there scratch marks around the keyhole? Has the lock been changed since the last tenant — and can they confirm? A landlord who shrugs at this question is a landlord who has shrugged at it before.

5. Test every window. Open and close each one. If a window is painted shut, that’s a fire-code issue. If the screen is missing, ask when it’ll be replaced. Look at the seal — drafty windows are why your January gas bill will be triple what you budgeted.

6. Run all the faucets. Hot, cold, both at once. Watch how long the hot water takes. Brown water for more than three seconds is a warning sign. Test the shower and check water pressure. Then flush every toilet and listen for the sound of the tank filling — slow refills mean weak water pressure throughout the building.

7. Open every kitchen appliance. The fridge, the oven, the microwave, the dishwasher. Open them. Look inside. Is the fridge clean? Does the oven look used recently or like it hasn’t been wiped since 2019? An appliance that looks neglected on tour day is going to break on you in month four.

8. Check under every sink. Pull open the cabinet under the kitchen sink and the bathroom sink. Look for water stains, mold, warped wood, or — and this is real — a small mushroom growing in the corner. (If a mushroom is growing in the cabinet, leave the tour.)

9. Look at the floors honestly. Stand still in the bedroom and feel for sloping. Walk the perimeter. Listen for creaks. Carpet stains that look “treated” usually mean a stain returns; hardwood that’s badly scratched will be flagged at move-out as your problem if you don’t document it.

10. Inspect the bathroom for mold. Around the tub seal, in the corners, behind the toilet. Bring a flashlight (your phone). Mold that’s painted over still smells. Trust your nose.

11. Check the heat and AC. Ask the manager to turn them on. Both. Some buildings only have one, which is fine — but you need to know. Cold-only AC in a 100-degree summer city is its own kind of misery.

12. Note every outlet location. How many outlets in each room? Are they ungrounded two-prong outlets (a sign of pre-1965 wiring that probably hasn’t been updated)? Is at least one bedroom outlet on the wall where your bed will go? You don’t want to discover this in week two.

13. Test the cell signal. Pull out your phone in every room. Buildings with thick walls or basement units regularly have terrible reception. Some students don’t notice until they realize they’ve been walking outside to take calls for six months.

14. Look at the laundry situation. In-unit, in-building, or laundromat? If in-building, walk to the laundry room. Count machines. A fifty-unit building with two washers means waiting three hours every Sunday.

15. Check parking. Is there assigned parking? Street-only? Permit-required? In college towns, parking is the silent variable that breaks roommate relationships. Get specifics in writing.

16. Walk the common areas. Hallways, lobby, mailboxes, trash room. The trash room tells you everything about the building’s management. Overflowing bins on tour day means overflowing bins in February.

17. Check the neighbors’ situation. Listen at the wall during the tour. If you can hear the next-door TV through the bedroom wall, you’ll hear every party next year. Old buildings with thin walls aren’t deal-breakers if you’re a heavy sleeper, but you should know.

18. Verify everything they tell you. Promised gym access? Ask to see the gym. Said utilities are included? Ask which ones, and ask for an example bill from a current tenant. Property managers who hesitate to confirm in writing are property managers who plan to charge you for it later.

The Three Questions Most Students Forget to Ask

After the walkthrough, before you leave, ask these:

What is the move-in fee structure? Security deposit, first month, last month, application fee, pet fee, admin fee, “amenity fee,” “move-in fee.” Get all of them in one number, in writing. Some buildings stack five different fees that surprise you at signing.

What’s the actual rent renewal policy? Will rent go up next year? By how much, on average? Some buildings raise rent 4% annually like clockwork; others spike 15% on lease renewal because they assume you’d rather pay than move. Ask.

How fast does maintenance respond? Be specific: “If my heat goes out on a Saturday, when can I expect a fix?” If they can’t give a number, you have your answer.

After the Tour

Take five minutes outside the building before you forget what you saw. Update your notes. Snap photos of any issues. Write down a one-sentence verdict — “loved the kitchen, hated the bathroom” — because by the time you’ve toured three apartments, the details blur.

If anything during the tour felt off, walk away. Trust that feeling. Berkeley, Provo, Boston, College Station — every market has more apartments than you can tour. The lease you regret is always the one you signed because the manager pressured you and you didn’t want to waste their time.

For more on what to ask before you sign, check our move-in checklist and read tenant reviews on FMP for the property before you commit. Past tenants will tell you in two sentences what fifteen minutes of touring sometimes won’t.