Moving
Originally published at Walking on Christopher's Street. You can comment here or there.
Since moving back to Minnesota from Florida in 2005, I have lived in the same place, two different landlords, but the same place. I do like the one bedroom place I have which provides me a ton of things at a reasonable price from a one bedroom, but still a bit expensive considering my current income while I launch my agency and potentially look for a full time job.
So several weeks ago, my friend also needed to look for a place and we began our search together. After pouring over the ads on Craigslist mostly we found several that we liked. I had forgotten how many ding-a-lings there were in the world. Here is a summary of the situations we ran into:
- A guy who didn’t put any location information on the ad, when emailed about the location he sent a seemingly personalized email ‘requesting’ that you go to his web site and get a ‘free copy of your credit report’ so he can review it prior to giving us an application. When pressed again for the location, he sent the identical email again. Pretty much a scam to collect personal information.
- One I actually looked at seemed ok although not perfect but would do. I went to view it on the afternoon of the biggest snowstorm we had of the season, he gave me applications and I advised him I would let him know either way that night. A couple hours I called him and said we would like it, and he says “OH I had someone come look at it right after you and he gave me the deposits. But he is afraid of a number of things on his application so he doesn’t know if he will get approved, So what don’t you and your roommate give me your applications and deposits and if he doesn’t get approved we will already have your stuff” I respond - No, Why don’t you call us if it doesn’t work out. (Why would I give someone money without the guarantee and if you have a guy that is ‘worried’ about his application being approved, why would you even accept his application)
- Another place had several, recently refurbished apartments, but would not show them on weekends and each time I suggested Usually a widow of a few hours each day, she would always come back with something well outside of those hours.
- The place we went with is not without drama, we found an ad for them which offered a free month and a set rate. We went in and saw that place and as it turns out we had friends living in the exact apartment a few years ago, so it seems like a good thing. We fill out the applications and suddenly the rent is $90 a month more than the ad. We point out the price and they agree to give us the place for the lower rent. Then the manager calls today and leaves a message about how because they are giving us a good deal on the place, they can’t gives us the free month too. I call her back and tell her that we are already paying rent somewhere else and can’t afford to pay double rent, that was the whole attractiveness of the deal is that we could use the ‘free month’ to slowly move in. She relents and says “Oh I didn’t know you were paying rent somewhere else, that fine then March is free”
So we signed our lease in the West Calhoun area, right next to Uptown, and on the midtown greenway. We pick up the keys and start moving our stuff this weekend.