In other news...

[spritechan]

Steve and I have begun seriously looking for places. We have a list of places jotted down and this weekend visited an apartment and its neighborhood. The apartment was okay. It had a good kitchen, met my closet space needs, and had a large bedroom. It even had a sort of nook where we could keep the litter box. The living room was tiny. The lady was a bitch for no reason, and asked very snarkily if I've rented before (I have, like three times. And I have good credit.). She said that two people can't live in a studio - that it must be a 1-bedroom. Wtf, no. Steve and I want a studio because we've basically been living in a tiny studio for a year now. Why waste space with extra walls?

My criteria:
-Lots of closet space (sharing a closet right now is KILLING us)
-Room for shelving
-A kitchen that is not suffocatingly small
-Place for litter boxes that is inoffensive
-Prefer garage

Steve's criteria:
-Not too busy, but not too in the middle of nowhere (not urban, but not 10+ minutes to a highway)
-Preferably in or around Oakdale (he's so gai for that city)
-Shorter lease for option of relocating
-Enough overall space to not feel suffocated (very much would like a big studio)
-Doesn't want to live in a "ghetto" or "white trash" area

We both want a ground floor place and prefer heat/water/trash included in rent.

So.. we don't conflict on the issue, but location is FARRR more important to him than me, and my need for closets and a garage are lesser to him. XD His parents will inevitably cry about wherever we move, because they're... ah... somewhat prejudiced, and consider anywhere outside their cul-de-sac a dangerous area. Especially if there is a black person sighting -_- Having worked in North Minneapolis (quite a dangerous area) and where I work in St. Paul now is also considered seedy, I'm not really afraid unless I got mixed up in drugs, which I won't. So there!

We're looking to move any time between now and April. We originally planned for April since the snow will be melting by then (whereas we got another few inches YESTERDAY) and it would be less hassle. But I think we're both quite itching to be on our own! We're gonna look at another apartment/neighborhood today. The area is by Lake Phalen, and Steve has some fears of the Lake Phalen area, especially in terms of ghetto-ness, so we're gonna scope it out.

I just threw this together on a print-screen because I <3 it: ^_^

Comments

[namidanotsuki.livejournal.com]

We apartment hopped a lot buying our first house (don't get me into that saga). The first one we lived in when I moved out here we stood at for a year. It was nice, basically a town house. At $1600 a month, it better have been. It was the area; lots of amenities, 5min commute to all public transportation, less than an hour from Chicago.

I hated renting from land lords. The situations where the properties are corporately owned are better, in my opinion. The main differences were price (you're going to pay more) and reliability of the staff. There's also nice things like large club houses, full and free gyms, pools etc. But I don't care too much about that stuff. What I did like was, when something broke and I lived at the aforementioned complex, they sent someone within the hour and it was fixed or replaced that day. Landlords tend to duct tape things together and hope they don't break again. There's good ones who employ reliable, qualified handy men, but that's not too common. Ask if your landlord has a handyman. If they don't they're likely one of those people who just want to collect a rent check every month and don't care about their renters.

Photograph every single dent, scratch and stain in your apartment as soon as you can. Most places require a deposit of some kind. For every place I've ever rented, they wanted a month's rent in advance. That's a lot of money to lose, so you should protect yourself.

I'm pretty sure you already know this but, you should read your lease thoroughly. I would never ever rent month to month for a variety of reasons, but that's another story.

Other than that, your list seems reasonable. Don't forget that you actually can talk to a real estate agent to help you find the best living situation; they don't just do houses.

[vixenofflames.livejournal.com]

I too hate renting from landlords. I've only ever come across crazy ones who have specific rules for their lawn ("Plant this tree and make sure it doesn't die" was one) or other weird things, shitty response time or none at all to fixing stuff, and who have pegged me as "leader" so when other douches don't pay their share of rent, I get the call. -_-

I definitely read every word of my lease. My last apartment charged me $20 to replace the linoleum flooring, which I did not damage in any way (and when I went to rent the place I was told it was the "old" linoleum aka "going to be replaced when you leave"), but I got the majority of my deposit back, even though my cats tore the shit out of the carpet in one place, I never paid the pet rent, and I added new stains to the horrific old ones. I was told at the start I wouldn't be charged for my carpet because it was so bad - the guy before me had anger issues and apparently liked throwing coffee around and punching walls and the fridge. As for the pet rent, I was told once I paid the pet deposit I could start paying the pet rent, so... I just never paid the deposit and no one ever said anything ^_^

I don't want to rent month-to-month, but I AM okay with 6- or 9-month leases, simply because I want the freedom to move in a shorter period of time if need be. I would like to move out of state ASAP, so I wanna be ready! :P

I've wondered about real estate agents. Really, if my boyfriend didn't have to pay $700 in loans every month, we could probably afford a small house, townhouse, or trailer (if needed). Ugh!