What exactly does the rental price on an apartment mean?

and how exactly would I find that? Would I have to call someone?

It depends on what they specify. You would have to phone the person who you are intending to rent the apartment from and ask them.

Call the person or agency renting the apartment.

Usually the amount of money stated is the monthly rental, but $5000 is extremely high for that. It could hypothetically mean the rent for a full year, but $5000 is very low for that. So, unless the apartment being advertised is in a very cheap of extremely expensive area, I’d say it has to mean something different.

The only other thing I can think of that “rental price” could mean is if you have to pay something up front to “buy” a lease. In other words, if you have to pay a one-time fee of $5000 at the beginning of the term of the initial lease, and then pay the monthly rent for however long you retain the apartment. If that is what it means, one thing you should make sure you know is whether you would have to pay that fee again in order to renew the lease when the first term is up (assuming you and the owner both want to renew).

In any case, going only by what you’ve told us, it sounds ambiguous. If you want to be sure, you have to ask whoever ran the ad, as Irene said.

1st paragraph: “very cheap OR extremely expensive area”