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View Full Version : Why?! Why is it so hard to find an apartment?!



edurnemk
04-25-2010, 02:43 PM
I'm sick of apartment hunting, I can't take it anymore. At this point I could just move into any shack just to be done with it...
It is so friggin' hard to negotiate something in this town, and it's just a LEASE. We've applied to THREE apartments and for something or the other it falls through:
APT #1, they want to rent it furnished, I ask for some furniture to be removed from the property (twin beds and TV unit in the 2nd bedroom), lady says yes, and 3 days later: nope, changed my mind, everything has to stay in the apt.
APT #2, a little over our budget, but has been unoccupied for months, so we make a lower offer, they say no, BTW it's still unoccuppied, but that's the owner's problem.
APT #3 A little on the small side, but I love the building, the street, etc. We're about to sign the lease yesterday, we ask for the lease to be modified since it has a ton of penalizations against us for any little thing, but nothing about the owner not fulfilling his obligations. I ask that they specify that they're obligated to make mayor repairs in a timely manner, and pay the HOA fees on time, and they back out. The Mrs. is really accessible but her DH is an a$$. He said that us asking to add something to the lease makes it hard to trust us.

You have got to be kidding me. I feel we're being perfectly reasonable. I just want to move already. I've looked at over 40 apartments, I do not want to keep looking.

When we moved to Chicago it took me 4 days to find something, and a week later the lease was signed. Now I've been searching since February!

I DO NOT want to continue to stay at my parent's house, and DH is even less thrilled of course.

viba424
04-25-2010, 04:19 PM
40 apartments? Holy buckets! Maybe youre using the wrong search methods. Places like apartment finders always seem to have crap.

I would also recommend that if you find a landlord/owner you like or get a good vibe from, even if that particular apartment is wrong, ask them if they have something else coming up. Many landlords own several properties and they there is always something opening up. Thats how I found my amazing former landlord. He was so great I saved his number and ended up calling him a year later and rented something from him.

Do you know if someone's boss, family member, etc have know someone who owns apartments? I know lots of people who own rental property, on a small scale.

SnuggleBuggles
04-25-2010, 04:21 PM
I used a real estate agent to find a rental. We were new to the area so wanted a 6m lease while we decided where and what to buy. It was great! It might be worth a shot! We got our agent's name b/c dh's company used her for relocations.

Beth

edurnemk
04-25-2010, 05:00 PM
We're living abroad now, and things work differently here. We are using real estate agents! It's ridiculous, we've used several, because a lot of them here are sort of unprofessional. We want an apartment in a very specific area, and we want a small building. The ironic thing is I've looked at a lot of apartments (including properties of people we know), which have been unoccupied for months, and they insist on asking for a really high price, a lot fo landlords would rather have their properties empty than to rent them for 200-300 dollars less. That makes no sense to me, people, if your apartment and most in the area are not being rented, maybe it's time to face the fact that you need to lower the price or make some upgrades to the place!

This last apartment, we really thought it was the one, because the landlady is really nice, but the husband apparently is a bit neurotic, I haven't met him. The current renter, who moved out this weekend, told us they're super nice and he was always very happy with them. But still, why refuse to put in writing that you'll take care of necessary repairs and such things?