Wanted to rent an apartment while looking for a home to buy. Most rentals require a 12month lease. How do you get your deposit back when you have found a house you want to buy?
If you sign a 12 month lease and put down a security deposit, you are bound for the 12 month period. What happens is that you can certainly break the lease if you want, but you will most definitely lose the security deposit and probably incur more costs as you are technically liable for the whole term of the lease, even if you lived in the house for 1 month. There are still limited homes for 6 month lease on the market. You just have to look for them.
Like the previous poster stated, there are heavy fees involved in breaking a lease. I would not suggest doing so unless it is for a very good reason or if it's somehow worth the money. You may want to stick it out in the apartment for a few months before you start looking so that you are closer to your lease expiration. If you do find a house before your lease expires, you may want to crunch the numbers and decide whether doubling up on the rent/mortgage or paying cancellation fees for your lease would be higher. Unfortunately, it's a lot of money going to waste either way. We had to double up on two rent payments on two homes in the past, but only for a month. I couldn't imagine if it had been for any longer. Your best bet is probably finding someone who will let you rent month-to-month. They are not as common, but they do exist. Sometimes you may even be able to talk a landlord into doing a month-to-month rental if they are having a hard time renting their place. You could also negotiate with the landlord by paying a slightly higher rental price in exchange for month-to-month renting.
Check with those places and see if they have any 6 month options available. Some places don't advertise it because they want people to sign a full year contract, but some do still offer them. That would give you a bit more leeway in potentially getting your deposit back. Remember that buying a house is a lengthy process anyway, so you could very well be there much longer than you expect.
It depends on the rental agreement that you sign. Yes, most leases will require that you pay the entire balance of the lease before you can get your deposit back, however in some cases, you can be released from your lease with an adequate written notice. Make sure that you have the ability to do this before signing if you think you will need to get out of your lease before your term is up or else you will forfeit your deposit and may be on the hook for the balance of the lease. You can also talk to the leasing agent about signing a shorter term lease. The monthly rent may be a bit higher, but you won't have the long term commitment and can be assured of getting your deposit back if you comply with all the other terms.
