Graduated and moving to an apartment in a major city in the US, advice/tips?

There's two parts of this I wouldn't recommend. First, moving without a job. It's the most important part. You can apply without moving - I wouldn't move, or make financial commitments, until I had an offer in the city.

Second, you can get Zoom/video call tours, but really, it's best to do one in person. I would recommend getting a short-long term lease (e.g in the number of months) in a furnished unit, from which you can start apartment hunting in person. AirBnB is an option. This is also an opportunity to buy furniture.

A solo studio with any semblance of a kitchen is going to be extremely expensive. Probably doable, but with tight budgeting. Expect less money to buy food and more time spent out of your week preparing meals. Which sounds fine and dandy in isolation, but the first time you have to cancel plans with friends or family because you have to cook your dinner is a real bummer. I get around this with meal prep on the weekends, or making big crock-pot recipes.

In terms of furnishings, keep it light until you know where you want to stay long term. I made the mistake of buying a bunch of crap in my first apartment and have since moved a couple of times. It sucks having a lot of stuff to pack up and move, or painfully throw away.

I have always opted to try to rent from individuals, rather than companies that own whole apartment complexes. The flexibility you are looking for is pretty uncommon with companies. But individuals who are just looking for the right person often accomodate requests, and usually offer a month to month lease rather than locking you into a 6 or 12 month contract. I've found places on craigslist, but I hear facebook marketplace is a good source also.

It might be worth making a special trip to see a few places. One of the most common housing related scams is to "be unable to be there in person", it is a huge red flag and people are unlikely to work around that. Not impossible, but extremely uncommon in my experience.

My advice once you get there, buy everything at goodwill before you buy anything nice. If this is your first time on your own, you won't really know yet what kind of items you'll be keeping long term. Mostly referring to furniture here. It sucks to buy a nice couch or dresser, then find yourself unable to take it with you to the next place. Wait till you know you are stable before spending big bucks on stuff like that.

This tip is for cities with higher crime - keep a can of hornet spray, or mace, or a taser by your front door :) They also make door stops that prevent a door from being forced open. You can't be too careful.

If you offer to pay a landlord the cost of the lease in full, is it typical for the landlord to waive the requirement that you provide proof of employment, or if you asked them to waive that, would they be likely to say yes?

More corporate places probably would not allow this. These are professional companies that manage properties that they may not even own, and so often aren't able to do this kind of thing without the owner's consent. Worth asking, I suppose, but it probably won't happen. It's risky, even if you pay upfront. And honestly, you don't want to lock yourself in like that. Breaking a lease is "bad" enough for any reason, but to break a lease and be out that money would be horrendous.

That said, more small-time landlords or owners may be willing to work with you. Look at areas around colleges, where it's not unusual for students to not work fulltime or at all. In Chicago while I was in college, I lived around the UIC area; plenty of small-time landlords aren't looking at income or job requirements. I think neither of the places I lived at did. And there are tons of colleges and college neighborhoods in Chicago.

Do you buy a mattress and bed frame with the expectation that you'll take it with you whenever you move

Yes, it's normal to buy and own a frame and mattress, along with the rest of your furniture. I'm 36, but I'm still using a nice metal bedframe my parents originally owned and used like 20yrs ago. My parents bought me a mattress like 10yrs ago when I was still living at home that I've taken with me through 3 apartments in the last 8yrs. I probably got a few more years out of this mattress before retiring it.

Since I don't live in the city I'll be moving to, I most likely won't be able to see the apartment in person before committing. Any particular ideas on how I could handle this or what I should be wary of?

I can't really answer this since I've never done this (though I may be doing this soon myself). But I know people who have done this with some success. If you're worried about whether you'll like a place or not, maybe go for a 6mo lease to start with. Then if you like it, sign regular 12mo leases. That's all I can say.

Good luck!

I'm looking for a walkable neighborhood and good public transit in addition to affordability, so really looking at Chicago and Philly right now.

I'm also looking at these two cities, and I think they're both the best in the US for what you're looking for. I've done quite a bit of traveling, trying to find where I want to live, and these are my favorites for those same criteria.

If you offer to pay a landlord the cost of the lease in full, is it typical for the landlord to waive the requirement that you provide proof of employment, or if you asked them to waive that, would they be likely to say yes?

I've done this, not to try to short-circuit employment checks, but to try to get a slightly lower rent. In my experience, it's not even been a negotiation but a flat "no." I took that to mean being paid for a year up-front is something landlords aren't the least bit interested in, but this may be me jumping to false conclusions. I wouldn't let this discourage you from trying. You're going to have much better luck with this from smaller landlords, and you'll find plenty of those in the cities you're looking at.

If I save up part-time earnings for the next 2-3 months…

I'm going to take a slightly different angle on the advice not to move without a job. What if, instead of using this 2-3 months to save rent you used it to try to get a job in the city of your choice? That would solve your problem of needing to prove employment.

Recently I realized that when apartments are listed as unfurnished, that means no bed or mattress either. (I kind of see now why futons are a thing.) How do people usually address this issue? Do you buy a mattress and bed frame with the expectation that you'll take it with you whenever you move out to the next apartment?

When I moved across the country, I asked the apartment if I could have a foam mattress shipped to them before my move-in date. They agreed to let me do that. (This probably only worked because it was a big apartment building that had a package room where they stored deliveries. This might be tough in some of the smaller apartment buildings in Chicago and Philly.) That mattress was there when I arrived, so we opened it and slept on it on the floor while waiting for our other things to arrive. Then, yes, you would take that along with any other furniture with you when you move. If you hire movers, they'll bring a big truck that will easily hold a studio apartment's worth of furniture, including a bed and mattress, so it's not really any harder than moving without one. Moving is a pain, no matter how you slice it.

Since I don't live in the city I'll be moving to, I most likely won't be able to see the apartment in person before committing. Any particular ideas on how I could handle this or what I should be wary of?

Most of the apartments and listing agents started doing virtual tours during the early part of the pandemic and would probably still do that. You may not need to pay someone to do it. That said, I would use that only to make your initial short list. I would not sign a lease on anything you haven't seen in-person. Renting an AirBNB while you finish up your search is potentially going to be much more expensive than a short-term rental, but it will ultimately be worthwhile.

Other advice:

• I'm looking for an apartment right now in Philly, and leases are wild! Make sure you read them. Most are negotiable. All the leases in Philly seem to want you to sign away your legal right to notice before an eviction. I'm not super excited about that, but I'm not sure yet if that's something they're willing to negotiate on. Many of them also want you to do stuff that I absolutely wouldn't do like maintain their heating and AC and sewers. That should 100% be the landlord's responsibility, but they may try to get you to sign a lease saying you will take responsibility. The other thing I'm noticing in Philly specifically is that they want you to agree to auto-renew the lease at a 5% increase after your lease term. It's a weird ask. Looking at the historical pricing of the rentals in Philly, I can't see anything that would justify this. Apartments are going on the market now for the same rent they went on the market for 3-5 years ago. Why would I want to commit to automatic 5% increases every year? I'm trying to get them to scratch this.
• Some landlords are willing to negotiate on the lease. Others aren't. I take this as yet another filter to help me decide who I want to work with. If I ask you about the lease and you ghost me, I dodged a bullet. You'd probably also ghost me if I needed you to fix the heat in the winter or the AC in the summer.
• This move is the most leverage you'll ever have. If you can get a job and get set up in an AirBNB while you hunt for your long-term place, you can walk from any apartment that isn't exactly what you want until you find the right one. Once you have an apartment full of furniture, if you decide to leave it, maybe because the landlord is a jerk or because they're raising your rent, you now have to give a notice to vacate, which means you're on the clock to find another place in something like 30 days. You also (likely) have to pay movers to get your stuff to another place which is going to add a few thousand dollars to your costs. Landlords know this, so they can raise your rent an amount every year that makes no one year enough to make moving make sense. Then, five years later, you find yourself paying almost $350 more per month than you were starting out.
• I'm convinced most landlords don't know what's in their leases. They just pay a lawyer to write the nastiest, most one-sided lease they can muster, and they start using it. (One landlord in Philly told me as much.) I'm pretty sure most renters don't read the leases either, but I can't take this approach myself… which ends up being maddening. Those renters are probably much happier than me, until something goes wrong. Then, I have a good idea of where I stand, and I guess they're just hoping to claw back some of the rights they signed away by the good graces of the landlord. That's why I tell myself anyway. 😅
• If you want to be super hands-off with your apartment search, you can find a real estate agent who will look for apartments for you. They are paid a commission when they place you, so you don't have to pay them anything. In my experience, they're not doing much more than what you can do yourself on Zillow. Maybe they're doing a very light filtering pass based on some criteria you've mentioned. They occasionally find me apartments I haven't seen elsewhere, but there are plenty of apartments I see other places that the realtor can't access because this only works when you have listed with a realtor. Individual landlords won't pay the commission, so your realtor won't show you their properties.

That's all I can think of at the moment. Feel free to ask follow-up questions. I'm by no means an expert, but I'm learning as much as I can right now and happen to be active in the two markets you're interested in.

As was already pointed out, unfurnished apartments generally don't include anything other than major kitchen appliances. Unless they're specifically mentioned in a listing, don't assume that you'll get anything other than a fridge/freezer and a stove. Although you didn't mention laundry, you almost certainly won't have your own washer/dryer in a studio so you'll want to know if there are shared machines in the building and how much they cost per use.

I've only rented somewhere before moving to another city once, but I felt more comfortable working with larger property management companies rather than individual landlords. I found they were less likely to misrepresent their units, are better equipped to work with you from a distance, and are more reliable when it comes to maintenance.

If you haven't spent much time in either city you're thinking of, consider going on a quick scouting trip. Visit for a few days and rather than doing tourist stuff, try riding transit during rush hour to and from where you think you might be working, scout out neighborhoods you're interested in to see how far your closest grocery store would be and how sketchy the areas are at night. If you use Reddit, the city subreddits can be a good way to get local opinions on different areas.

Lastly, when you get a place, the first thing you should do is meticulously document the condition of the unit with photos and videos. If there's a tiny chip in the corner of the bathroom mirror, you'll want to be able to prove it was there before you moved in or you might be on the hook to replace it when you move out.

Well, welcome to the adult world. Given your lack of personal connections, and familial ties, I must warn you that it is dog eat dog out here. My partner had a very similar "experience" we'll say, and there was a lot of places she probably could have gotten trapped.

1.) Do NOT under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, pay a landlord a year upfront. It gives them literally no incentive to fix or repair anything that breaks. My partner's first living experience was pretty terrible. She rented a room in a house a few blocks from the university. Her father was unwilling to cosign on it, and desperate, she paid a year upfront. The property was trashed on move in, and she realized it was not a good place to live in within a week of moving there. Due to her paying a year in advance, she had no leverage whatsoever, and had to convince the landlord to let her sublet the room. It worked out in the end, but it was a bad situation. If you do this, you can very easily be taken advantage of, with very little legal recourse.
2.) Buy a mattress, find the rest of the furniture at thrift stores, or off the side of the road. Honestly, you can find a lot of good stuff in alleys in spring when people are moving in or out. Also, weird thing I've noticed, is I've never had any good bedframes in my adult life. Like, for one, if you're getting a queen mattress or larger, bed frames in any reasonable price-range seem to be very flimsy. I literally bought one from Ikea 2 months ago, and I don't think it will last more than a year. Having a mattress on a floor, especially if you buy a box spring, is a very reasonable thing, imho.
3. I wouldn't do this. I honestly have heard too many stories of a person getting scammed this way. Budget in money for a hotel, and then just search for places with immediate movein. The upfront cost is higher, but it cuts down on a lot of risk.

So, landlords are scummy. They just are. It's just one of those businesses. I've actually dealt with it enough that I am the resource for "landlord issues" in my friend group. My brother's friend literally almost lost 2 grand on a crumbling rental that was unlivable like a week ago. (that one ended up getting solved when his mum screamed at the landlord until he got his money back, fortunately enough.) Everyone I know has some sort of "terrible landlord" story. Now, good landlords definitely exist, but you won't know that one is until you've lived under their roof.

You are Naive. I do not mean to be rude in saying this, but you are a newly minted adult, and you are the exact target of a predatory landlord or management group. Additionally, given your lack of familial ties or local connections, you are in an exceptionally weak position. Additionally, given the stress of your toxic family, you are more likely to make risky decisions, a further weakness. The world likes to chew people like you and spit them out. It actively culls people like you. It's dark, gross, and terrible to people who aren't street smart. Really, take care of yourself, especially if you ain't got others to be there for you.

From personal experience, I do not think you're making a good career choice. Unless you've literally studied to be a paralegal, it's not an easy profession to break into. My personal experience, is that I have 2BAs, and dropped out of Law School (among other things), and I was never able to find any roles in my midwestern location in the legal industry. At the end of the day, you will be competing with every other newly minted graduate, many of whom are going to have family ties who can get them jobs via connections or nepotism. (The Legal profession is super nepotistic, by the way.)
Seriously, the easiest way that anyone is going to get a job is via connections. Given AI screening resumes and cover letters, it's way too easy to get flushed out before you even get an interview. Sometimes, you literally need someone on site to put in a good word for you. It's the game, it sucks but it's literally how the world works. Getting jobs is HARD, especially without experience in what you're doing. Unless you have internship experience, I think you should broaden your search, and look further.

Additionally, you're one of 2 million other college grads from 2023. How many of them are smarter, better connected, stronger, and/or capable then you? Even if you graduated top of your class, about 100,000 of those other students graduated magna cum laude. These are people you will be actively competing with. I don't mean to be a doomsayer, but this world is not conductive to the success of the majority.

You do have some advantages though. You can technically search the continental USA for jobs, and get an apartment after the job. That's not an advantage most people have. Additionally, you do seem very smart, and you have a plan. Just remember that no plan survives contact with the enemy.

Final Advice? Search the continental US, find a job you like in a place that seems nice, get the letter of hire, travel to the city, and find a job. When you're there, build community as fast as you can, and find the people you need to get you where you want to be. (Also, Minneapolis is a major city with decent public transit and walkability, imho.)

At the end of the day, all we have is other people.

Honestly, I hope this advice is meaningless to you, and you've long since moved to a new city. Best of luck out there!

You could check out FurnishedFinder or other similar sites that travel nurses use. You get a furnished unit on a short term lease. You can take your time looking for a job and a new place to live and acquiring furniture. It's not cheap, but probably better than AirBnB.

Just going to reiterate what most other people are saying, that you shouldn't move without a job offer in hand. (Unless you have a lot of money for whatever reason - $15k is not a lot of money in this scenario)

You can negotiate start date to give yourself some time off between school and starting work - as long as you're reasonable about it (e.g. a month is probably fine, 6 months is probably not).

Most professional jobs will also pay relocation costs as well, in my experience (probably more likely at larger companies, and industry dependent). That can really help you get started with a down payment, new furniture, etc. You won't get this if you're already in the city, or for my company it's within 50 miles I believe.

Probably the most important piece is that a job offer will ensure you know what your actual compensation will be before you sign a lease. Online estimates can be very hit or miss for that sort of thing and may be averages that include salaries of more experienced people. At the very least, most landlords will want to see a signed offer with salary so they have a degree of confidence that you can actually afford the rent.

Others have said enough about moving without a job and all the finance stuff. I'm more worried about you being rigid about getting studio apartment. It's not a common structure in most apartments, many good, clean and secure apartment communities will only have 1 bed and above. 1 bed would likely cost the same as a studio apartment in most places. So your requirement should be 'apartment to myself' and not 'studio or nothing'.

I didn't see anyone mention the commonly known phenomenon of less jobs being processed in the holiday season. It's not applicable to all companies but I have seen it happen in software companies every year. Beyond October, you get less interview invites and the ones that interview you might delay finalizing your job offer until January. It does pick back up in January though. If you need a mental break, you can just gauge the market first and then decide when you should move based on how many call backs you get in first month or so.

Something that may be a possibility for you if you're very desperate to move and need a short term place is subleasing or month to month rentals. I've seen students subleasing their apartment for 1-3 months for either summer break, winter break, or so they don't have to break their lease when they move away early. Often times they keep their stuff in the apartment, so no buying furniture, but that also means you may not have as many options including whether or not you have a roommate. Another thing to consider though is that some of these students may not be doing this legally, which could possibly get you in trouble as a lot of landlords have sublease clauses.

Some landlords will offer month to month leases, but you should be very careful about predatory landlords when looking at these. Oftentimes landlords who cater to students, new graduates or other not so well off folks prey off their lack of knowledge on tenant rights, and lack of money and time to dispute. You might lose a deposit that way. I speak from experience. Look at reviews carefully, but also know that there are people who lost their deposits for genuine reasons and still complain.

When you're actually looking for a longer term apartment there are a few things to look out for. Look up what cockroach, termite, rat, and mouse poop look like. Open the kitchen cupboards and look in the back with a flash light to check for signs of pests. If the ac or heater isn't on when you walk in ask to turn it on and note whether you can actually feel hot or cold air coming out the vents. I don't know about Philly but in Chicago you want AC at minimum. You can buy a radiant heater for a studio for around $150 if needed but you will suffer without AC and many rented places don't allow window units. Flush the toilet and test the shower and sinks for water pressure. Look at the windows and ceilings for water damage or mold. This is super important if you get a garden level apartment, aka a half underground one. If there is water damage on the windows or under them around the baseboards or floors, then things likely leak during rain and snow melting. Ask them how often they change furnace and AC filters, and what's covered under their maintenance costs versus yours. Check both any used furniture and the baseboards for bed bugs. It's a long list but there a lot of ways to get screwed on an apartment that I learned the hard way. Hopefully you can't avoid most of them.

1. I have never heard of anyone doing this, and I've rented in a lot of different situations. Rentals as an investment are supposed to be a steady, long term revenue stream. Without a job, this one-time up front payment might come off more as a red flag than anything else. Also, don't forget there's going to be a security deposit and they may still want you to have X many month's rent in the bank anyways.

2. You buy furniture. When you move, you either hire movers or you sell it all and buy everything again for your new place. Sometimes the latter option is the best depending on how cheap/expensive your furniture is. A lot of my furniture is off Craigslist or grabbed off the side of the road (bed being the exception, obviously).

3. I cannot stress enough how bad of an idea this is. You are about to enter into a year-long legal agreement which will be your greatest expense for the next year, and you want to do this without physically looking at it? Backing out of a lease isn't a painless ordeal. At the very least you'll be expected to pay an additional month's rent in early termination fee (which you'll have to pay on top of the rent and security deposit at your next place), and some jurisdictions can hold you responsible to continue paying rent until the landlord finds a new tenant. An eviction on your record will make you untouchable for years if it falls apart on you.