My college apartment situation was a complete breeze compared to what renting is like in the post grad world. I lived in a college town where nearly every house within a one mile radius of the campus was inhabited by students. I had an attentive landlord and my parents paid my rent in one lump sum at the beginning of each semester. There was really no talk of subletting since students rented by the semester.
In post grad world, apartments are an entirely new ball game. In order to be attractive to a landlord you must be employed and be reliable. Since I am subletting my apartment, I'm getting a little taste of what landlords go through in selecting a tenant, and let me tell you, it's not pretty.
So far I've had potential subletters try to withhold their gender from me (it's going to come out eventually...) and lie about who would be living in the apartment (a little hint to couples out there who think it's better to refer to themselves as "friends"- don't do this! It's deceiving and wastes every one's time.) I've even had a 20 year old boy who had his MOTHER writing emails to me asking about the place. If you're not mature enough to handle emailing a potential apartment, you are not mature enough to live on your own.
I know Shikole is looking at a few places this week and I'll be showing the apartment to more subletters, so I'm sure more stories are to come. Do you guys have any crazy rental stories to share?
Went to move in with 3 young professionals living by the Russian Embassy in Glover Park (DC). 3 young professionals meant a Chinese woman working at their embassy, an Indian woman studying for the nursing exam, and an American woman that went to Vassar and Columbia Law but didn't seem all there mentally. After coming home at 8am from the previous night and laying down to rest and hearing the crazy American woman fly off the handle at the Indian woman, I knew that it was time to leave. This was the second week of being there and when I was going to move from a sublet to signing the lease since the price was very attractive for my intentions to stay in DC post-grad in order to be near a woman.
ReplyDeleteNow I just moved into an apartment in Oklahoma maintained by a chain smoking old man who may or may not also be the landlord himself. Fortunately, the cost of this 2 bedroom apartment is less than my cost of rent to have one room in a 3br set up in suburban MD/DC