Right now I'm in the process of finding a new place to live 'cause my roommate drove me up a wall, and my friend's roommate drove her up a wall. Because of this, the two of us have decided to move in together, but so far, we've had minimal luck at finding a place we can call our home.
The places here are either too far away from work, or too far up a hill -- and I'm not fond of hills, too expensive, too old, not enough parking space, too big, too little, too smelly, too claustrophobic-inducing, or no washer/dryer or laundry facilities on site.
I swear, we've looked at EVERYTHING. If the rent (+ utilities) is over $1000/person, she scrunches up her face. If the deposit is over $2500, I scrunch up my face. If the area smells weird or the apartment has an old smell, she gets really turned off. If the area is just downright dangerous, I am vehemently against it.
We visited four places already (and revisited one) and contacted at least 6-8 different places in the course of a week. We both have our own set of deal-breakers and flexible deal-sealers, so that's why we haven't been able to find a good place yet.
Some things we have in common are price sensitivity and convenience, though our interpretations are slightly difference.
I like lots of space and even if I can't have lots of space, I would at least like a value that is worth the space I am getting. I want a washer/dryer in the unit and if I can't have that, I have to at least have laundry facilities onsite. I would like two parking spaces, but if not, then at least lots of street parking. If I'm getting lots of space, I don't mind paying rent over $1000 and having a large deposit, but if I have to pay $3500 in deposit and $1750 in rent (not including the utilities) for a place that has a weird set-up and is very small, then I am very much against that. One of my deal-breakers is living on a hill 'cause that requires me to drive up hills and I am NOT a fan of hills in general. I love the views up on the hills, but I hate driving up them. I also hate noisy areas and dangerous locations. Some parts of town are not exactly the safest and I do not want to be living in an area where gunshots can be heard at times. The low-housing section of town is definitely not ideal.
So in short, my deal-breakers are heavy deposits for small spaces, hills, dangerous locations, loudness, and lack of w/d.
My friend doesn't mind small spaces, but like me, if we walk into a room and it makes us claustrophobic, then that is a definite no-no. She does not mind hills, and she does not mind laundry facilities -- I rather have the w/d in the unit, but I can live with just laundry facilities too. She does mind high rent and not high deposit -- unlike me. She does not want to spend over $1000/month on rent, 'cause she could be saving that extra $200/month for other things, which I agree to an extent, but if I'm getting a really good deal for that rent, hell I would take it (like a townhouse for $2000 is really sweet, but she was against it so we didn't go for it). But even if the rent is extremely cheap, she would like want to live in a place if it looks really old and smells funny. She is very sensitive to smell too, not that I am not sensitive to smell, but she is like my mom in which the faintest smells can drive them insane so that is a definite deal-breaker for her. She has no problem with living in more dangerous areas of town, but she is adverse to loud sounds like me. She also likes things that are not so strenuous, so things like having to walk up several flights of stairs to use the laundry facilities and back down to the apartment is not ideal for her.
The first place we looked at was beautiful with hardwood floors, spacious kitchen and living room, and two huge master bedrooms, plus two bathrooms, but the deal-breakers included:
1. laundry facility in a building across from the condo, and up 2 flights of stairs. (Her worry is that if she trips, then all her clean laundry will need to be re-washed, for me, it's just inconvenient 'cause I like everything inside one unit).
2. the hill drive is EXTREMELY steep and for some as adverse to hills as me, that was NOT a happy thing.
3. only one parking space close to the condo, and the other is up on the hill behind it (that makes it a pain in the ass)
The second place we looked at was a very unique apartment that was very homey and comfortable for the two of us, but the set-up was weird. The two bedrooms were joined together, so you had to go through one bedroom to get into the other bedroom. The kitchen was tiny, but the living room was not all too bad. It was very quaint and homey, but very tiny. We loved it for the most part and didn't mind the bedroom situation, but in the long run, it might not work out too well so it was a flexible deal-breaker. Our major deal-breaker for this place was:
1. $3500 deposit. (For that small of space and that bedroom arrangement, $3500 for a deposit is really a rip-off, it's like buying a Civic for the price of a Lexus. At first, I didn't realize it was that much, because I thought the deposit was the extent of the rent which was only $1750, but it was actually double that amount. I don't care if the rent is good and the place is quaint, there is no way I'm putting all my money into a place like that, it is not worth it).
2. Another for me (and not for her) was the hilly slope that the apartment was on 'cause my car was rolling down that thing when I didn't have my foot on the break and that freaked me out. This didn't really bother my friend all that much, but it definitely bothered me.
The third place we saw was a boathouse, which was very nice and very cute. The kitchen was big, the living room was spacious, and the deck was very nice as well. The bedrooms were good-sized, there was a w/d in the unit, and storage space was not bad. Parking was good too, and it was still close to work, but... the big deal-breaker was the smell. When the tide goes out, the house is basically located in mud so it smells REALLY bad. The smell permeates through the house too 'cause the wood is weak from being around water so much, and since the bedrooms are on the floor below, the smell gets pretty pungent. My friend has a nose like a beagle's so that was her biggest deal-breaker. For me, I could get used to it, but it was not ideal for me either. It smelled like sea lions.
The fourth place we saw was WAY UP in the hills, but the slope was not overly steep so it was doable for me. I was willing to try living there. The apartment community had nine buildings with a common community area where there's a pool, hot tub, gym, and barbeque area, plus plenty of parking. There were laundry facilities on site as well, which isn't as ideal as inside the unit, but it was flexible for us. The deposit was only $199, which was very nice compared to the hefty $3500. The rent was nice and low at $1388-1508, but the deal-breakers are as follows:
1. the small bedroom in the house could rival a large closet, no joke, it's that small.
2. storage is minimum
3. the hallways are darkly lit, looks like old college dorm set-ups, and smells like old '70's paint and we know that that is definitely NOT good.
Though I like the community, the quietness, the area, and the price, even I was a bit unsettled with the place. My friend was very against it, because she didn't want to pay to live there even if the rent is super cheap compared to other places since it was so old and smelled funny. One of the bedrooms was so small that it couldn't be called a bedroom, and it just wasn't a fair set-up. We decided to give up on this one too.
I then called this management company about this duplex they have on their website and found out there's no w/d or laundry facilities on site at all, so we gave up on this completely before even looking at it. So basically, we're back to square one and waiting to hear back from two more other places, but we'll probably never hear back from them, because people suck at replying to emails. I like calling them better 'cause then I can get a hold of them faster. *sigh*
I want to call one more place today, but I'm so tired of looking around. I need a day off, it's been a week of work + getting off work to look at places and contacting various people. It's so exhausting looking for a place to live =_= *sigh* I wonder if we'll ever find a place that we like at all.
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