Well folks, while people might have tuned in to find out why I was in Tallahassee this past weekend, I’m not going to indulge that one just yet… Instead, I’d like to share a tale of apartment hunting.

Sarah and I had a great 1,200 sq. ft. apartment that we were living in up till the end of March, but the problem was, the lease expired in the middle of a school term. So with that, we were faced with finding a new place to stay till August when I’d be done with school. Not too bad, when you think about it, but when you add in a few key things, well, it makes it all the harder:

While that doesn’t sound like a lofty list of demands/issues to take care of, well, it’s definitely plenty. And when we were looking, well, there were a few trends that we noticed occured on a regular basis… I’d like to go over them here because it shows just how much of assholes and stupid people can be.

1) We Have Cats: That means that we’re not getting rid of them. That means that if you don’t want cats or pets, don’t advertise pets allowed. Also, don’t back up on things.
2) Two People Doesn’t Mean…: That we’ll pay twice the rent because we’re sharing half of your space. If there are three people living in one apartment, we’ll pay 2/3rds of the electricity, but if we’re using half the space, we’re only paying half the rent. Yes, I’ve had people want to charge us twice the price because of three people in one place.
3) When We Say Close…: We mean close. Seriously. Don’t offer me something 5-10 miles away that I’m going to have to ride an hour to school on the Orlando bus. And also, when I say I have no car, don’t offer me something that’s not on the bus line, even if it is cheap.
4) And When You Post An Ad…: You need to follow up on it. That means if you’re on Craigslist, check your e-mail. If you’re on Facebook, check your Inbox. If you left your phone number, listen to and respond to your messages. Even if its to tell me that you’re busy, that’s alright. And make it timely, like 24-48 hours. You need to follow through or you’re not getting me in because I’ve tried and its in your hands, buddy.

And that’s where I have the greatest stories…
1) A guy had a 2/2 condo that he was looking for a renter for one of the rooms. The real estate agent himself thought we were a great fit, but when he contacted the condo owner, he didn’t think it was fair to the guy already living there for two people to move into one room. All of this after we already agreed to pay twice the utilities. We weren’t even shown the place. In all honesty? If you’re the owner of a place and someone’s going to pay your mortgage for a few months? In this market? Take it!
2) One guy was going to rent out his room in a 2/2 to us, and we’d have to pay all of the deposits to transfer things into our name, but his lease was through October. With us not needing it past August, it was a bit weird. It got even weirder when he stated that he’d be living on the couch in the living room. So in essence? It’d be 4 people in a 2/2 apartment, and we’d be paying his rent for a few months.
3) One girl replied and everything was perfect, absolutely perfect. I replied to her about her place and I didn’t hear back from her… until two days before our lease expired, a good two weeks after I replied to her. She apologized stating that she doesn’t check Facebook much. That’s sort of sad, seeing I replied not 2 hours after I got her message. Oh well, that’s not as much my loss but her loss.

So all of that said, like I had mentioned late last month, we have moved. Ironically the roommates we have now? They graduated one of my alma mater’s rival high schools c/o 2004. They were freshmen at Hernando High when I graduated Springstead High in 2001. Talk about interesting coincidences…

This entry was posted on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 10:19 am by Adam and is filed under Babbling, Homelife, The history of me, Writings/Rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.