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deadwing posted:On the other hand, I'd say offer to pay the 250 on the condition they fix up your problems with the property if that's what you were willing to pay for the house in top shape. Remind them that you signed a lease for $240, and for the property to be worth the extra money, you need (list of things) taken care of. Bet they'll fix your problems in a hurry that way. Make sure you get their agreement plus a timeline to take care of everything in writing. With the rent retroactively reverting to $240 a week if they fail to hold up their end of the bargain.
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Feb 20, 2014 07:32
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Can anyone give some tips on apartment hunting at a distance (or link to a post in this thread someone has done already)? I saw the websites in the OP (which are very helpful!) but I was wondering if anyone had some things to look out for. I'll be moving for grad school this fall, and right now most of my choices are 1000+ miles away. I'll probably make a definitive choice by March and start looking then.
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Feb 22, 2014 21:48
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Badger of Basra posted:Can anyone give some tips on apartment hunting at a distance (or link to a post in this thread someone has done already)? I saw the websites in the OP (which are very helpful!) but I was wondering if anyone had some things to look out for. I'll be moving for grad school this fall, and right now most of my choices are 1000+ miles away. I'll probably make a definitive choice by March and start looking then.
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Feb 22, 2014 21:54
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Badger of Basra posted:Can anyone give some tips on apartment hunting at a distance (or link to a post in this thread someone has done already)? I saw the websites in the OP (which are very helpful!) but I was wondering if anyone had some things to look out for. I'll be moving for grad school this fall, and right now most of my choices are 1000+ miles away. I'll probably make a definitive choice by March and start looking then. There are various methods to have a place ready when you arrive (i.e. signing via mail) but it is dubious both for you and the landlord. Best to see the place in person, and nothing a $50/night hotel can't cure in a couple of nights.
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Feb 22, 2014 23:56
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I've found that a short term sublease (often found for the length of the semester in college towns) are amazing for acquainting yourself with the area and apartment hunting from. Or moving into a month-to-month multiple roommate situation temporarily.
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Feb 23, 2014 17:38
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photomikey posted:I'd suggest doing a fair amount of trolling on craigslist before you go, making some phone calls, etc. Then budget a few hundred dollars to stay in hotels for a few days when you get there. See a few apartments on day 1, apply on day 1, get approved in 24 hours or so, and move in day 2 or 3. Depending on where you're moving, the get approved part can be much more crappy. Finding an apartment in Geneva was ~2 weeks of hunting and another ~2 weeks of fighting through the application process. I think it's less bad if you're not moving there internationally, but even then the process is rather painful. I think moving into Tokyo can be even worse.
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Feb 23, 2014 19:51
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Ugh I have to decide if I want to renew my lease 4 months ahead of time. I really don't want to renew the lease, considering the maintainence has been subpar, and control of the heat has been a constant battle with these people. It took them 2 weeks to handle squirrell infestation in the wall. The pros of the place is that it is huge for the money Im spending, has excellent storage, and an awesome location. I want to stay in the area but get something a little cheaper, as I'm saving for a wedding. I'm more than a little nervous that if we don't renew, we'll get stuck with a more expensive apartment or have to move to a less convenient area. I can't really determine if the apartment market is going to be awesome in late june because we have to renew so far ahead of time.
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Feb 24, 2014 13:23
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Can anyone recommend a couch that will fit up a narrow set of stairs? My old couch is in my basement because that was a straight shot. Going up to my apartment has two landings. My queen bed only barely made it.
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Feb 24, 2014 13:29
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Bread Set Jettison posted:Ugh I have to decide if I want to renew my lease 4 months ahead of time. I really don't want to renew the lease, considering the maintainence has been subpar, and control of the heat has been a constant battle with these people. It took them 2 weeks to handle squirrell infestation in the wall.
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Feb 24, 2014 17:04
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Bread Set Jettison posted:. I can't really determine if the apartment market is going to be awesome in late june because we have to renew so far ahead of time.
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Feb 24, 2014 18:52
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photomikey posted:What part of the world? As a tenant, the apartment market is always best when it's cold outside. As a landlord, it's always best when it's warm out. Never believed this until I became a landlord. It's 100% true. Boston area. Not really boston, but a suburb nearby. I'm just pretty sure this apartment is the best we'll get in the area for what we can afford unfortunately.
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Feb 24, 2014 19:31
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Bread Set Jettison posted:Boston area. Not really boston, but a suburb nearby. I'm just pretty sure this apartment is the best we'll get in the area for what we can afford unfortunately. If you're looking for June, you should be able to find something. The summer is prime apartment hunting season, with Sept 1st being the absolute WORST and should be avoided if possible, just because the competition is too fierce and it becomes a landlord's market. June is a much better and less hectic time; better for sublets, but still good overall. Also, your landlord sounds like an rear end, so don't renew, no matter how good a deal it seems. Edit: if you want lower rent, go for Jamaica Plain, Arlington, etc. The rent prices have shot up horrendously over the past few years in most areas, and it's only getting harder to find places at a decent price. yoyomama fucked around with this message at 20:35 on Feb 24, 2014 |
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Feb 24, 2014 20:33
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There's always the chance that if you don't renew now and then decide to later they will allow you to stay - replacing tenants is annoying as gently caress v v
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Feb 25, 2014 00:15
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Do you not have the option of going month-to-month? That's typically what leases default to after the term is up. You probably don't have to move if you don't renew.
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Feb 25, 2014 01:03
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yoyomama posted:If you're looking for June, you should be able to find something. The summer is prime apartment hunting season, with Sept 1st being the absolute WORST and should be avoided if possible, just because the competition is too fierce and it becomes a landlord's market. June is a much better and less hectic time; better for sublets, but still good overall. The area we're in is below JP, because its most central for the both of us. Moving is stressful, and we're planning a wedding at the moment. The problem is I don't really want to leave the area, and she doesn't really wanna pay these rent prices. We may have to make sacrifices and move to a really lovely town to save extra bucks for our overpriced dinner party. Still it turns out my lease is up sooner than I expected. I wasn't given 4 months, I was given 3 months. My lease ends June first durr durr durr.
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Feb 25, 2014 16:21
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I have been emailing a lady back and forth about a rental house, and she started saying some weird stuff in the emails (stuff about God, how she was renting the house out because she was on a mission trip, the rent is low because she just wants someone to take care of the house and doesn't care about money, etc). Then she "approved" my "application" and wanted me to Western Union her some money. I called the real estate agency where the house was listed and they are reporting it to the police. The lady who emailed me does not own the house, the price she quoted for rent was different, etc. The house is a real house and it's really for rent, but not from her. Apparently this town is having lots of problems with scam emails like this. And some people have been dumb enough to actually fall for them. Just be aware, there are scams out there for rental houses! Never send anyone money, don't do anything without signing a lease!
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Feb 25, 2014 18:31
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I don't know if this question belongs here, but... I moved into my apartment here in central Texas in late August 2013. Back in October, I discovered the heat switch on my thermostat is actually connected to the AC, so my apartment was being chilled when I was trying to heat it. So I call in maintenance, and the guy said there was some bad wiring but let me know that my apartment does not come with heat pumps, only emergency heat. That guy argued that this was a perfectly reasonable arrangement, even though every other apartment in the complex had heat pumps. I really know nothing about heating, so I couldn't argue about it. Apparently he didn't fix the bad wiring, because come November (the next time it was actually cold) I learned my heat didn't work at all. So I had a series of five different maintenance people come through my apartment, each time not listening to me when I tell them there were no heat pumps installed. A couple of them wasted an at least an hour figuring it out themselves. Apparently this is very unusual and every other apartment in this huge complex has heat pumps installed, and they seemed genuinely confused and disturbed by this situation. Finally, the last one or two guys came by when I'm not at home and decided the thermostat is the problem (it had broken between maintenance visits). So they fixed the emergency heat and replace the thermostat. The note they left didn't say they installed heat pumps, so I don't think they did. I quickly learned though that this heat can't actually be set. The thermostat says you can set the temperature, but it actually doesn't have a limit on how hot it can get and it heats up VERY quickly. The longest I've left it on was about two hours, and it went from about 65 degrees to 95 degrees inside my apartment. I've never let it get higher than that, but I'm not sure it has a stopping point. Once I turn off the heat though, the temperature drops back down fairly quickly. Central Texas has incredibly mild winters, and I've just kind of learned to live with this shoddy system where I can't really leave the heater on for longer than half an hour and feel comfortable or safe. But I put in another maintenance request for the heat yesterday while I had to get something else fixed, and the note they left today maintained that everything about my heating system was perfectly fine. (I suspect they're not testing it for very long.) I work for the majority of the hours maintenance is on call during the week, and it's been kind of hard to feel motivated to keep pursuing this when it really hasn't paid off so far. But my rent is pretty high for the location, and I'm very resentful that I've been paying so much money to never have properly working heat. I don't like complaining so much about this, but it's been really frustrating and I don't know what to do about it. If I go to the office, they're always polite and willing to send maintenance. But I feel like this shouldn't have been an issue in the first place, and I definitely shouldn't still have this problem after six or seven visits from maintenance. Mistaken Frisbee fucked around with this message at 09:33 on Feb 27, 2014 |
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Feb 27, 2014 09:27
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You seem like you've been cool and calm about the whole situation, and I salute you. I'd ask to speak to a manager about the situation. The maint guy probably makes $10 an hour and knows how to check a thermostat, so when the work order says "NO HEAT", he checks the thermostat. "Emergency Heat" is costing you 2x what regular heat would cost you. Your trump card as a tenant is always "move". At some point, I'd want heat. If I couldn't get it resolved, I'd move.
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Feb 27, 2014 10:19
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Yeah, it's central Texas, you can probably find a place that isn't going to burn down around your ears from shoddy electrical work and ridiculous maintenance people.
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Feb 28, 2014 06:13
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Is there a way I can look up whether or not a place is a murder house or something? I'm checking out a couple of places tomorrow to potentially rent, and one of them is suspiciously inexpensive given the location and number of bedrooms. I'd actually be relieved to find out that the only thing wrong with it is someone got murdered there.
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Mar 1, 2014 05:57
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In my experience, this scam is usually "house being rented by someone with no rights to rent the house". But no, no public murder log. Ask the neighbors.
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Mar 1, 2014 06:24
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photomikey posted:In my experience, this scam is usually "house being rented by someone with no rights to rent the house". Yeah, but I've got a showing scheduled for tomorrow, and usually they pull that "just send me a check" poo poo over email. And the place has been listed for 24 days, rent has dropped $350 a month in that time. I guess it'll probably be obvious.
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Mar 1, 2014 06:27
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Thanatosian posted:Yeah, but I've got a showing scheduled for tomorrow, and usually they pull that "just send me a check" poo poo over email. And the place has been listed for 24 days, rent has dropped $350 a month in that time. I guess it'll probably be obvious. Maybe they just forgot to clean up the blood.
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Mar 1, 2014 06:58
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Thanatosian posted:Is there a way I can look up whether or not a place is a murder house or something? http://www.crimemapping.com This week my neighborhood's had one assault and three counts of disturbing the peace. Pretty sure two of them were this crazy guy a block over who goes mental some Saturday mornings (and only Saturday mornings) and starts screaming bloody murder about any loving thing and you can hear him from blocks away. He'll go for hours. On topic, I've used padmapper to get a general idea of pricing in a neighborhood: http://www.padmapper.com It can help you get a feel for what's normal pricing for the area. This can be a difficult time of year to rent out a place so that may explain the price drop. ohnobugs fucked around with this message at 10:02 on Mar 1, 2014 |
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Mar 1, 2014 09:58
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 My boyfriend and I are moving across several states in a little over a month. I think we've found the apartment we want, but I'm worried about the application. I moved in with him about a year ago, but his landlord has always been out of the picture and is terribly hard to get ahold of. Excuses aside, I'm not on the lease and he never told her I'm living here.Now this new potential landlord wants us both to fill out applications. We both have excellent credit and full-time jobs (though his pays twice as much as mine), but I'm worried about what to say about my current address and landlord. Suggestions?
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Mar 1, 2014 19:11
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Personally, I think living in a murder house is a plus. For one, you get to brag you live in a freakin' murder house. For two, it's statistically safer than any other house. What are the odds one house is going to have two murders? DrBouvenstein fucked around with this message at 23:57 on Mar 1, 2014 |
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Mar 1, 2014 20:39
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jemsy posted:Now this new potential landlord wants us both to fill out applications. We both have excellent credit and full-time jobs (though his pays twice as much as mine), but I'm worried about what to say about my current address and landlord. It is REALLY hard to find a tenant, particularly two, who work full time and have excellent credit.
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Mar 2, 2014 05:52
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Here's a question - I'm trying to find places with a decent commute to my work and my fiancee's work - does anyone know of a google maps API tool or something like that that can take two locations and show you places within a given commute time of them both?
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Mar 2, 2014 19:35
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Thanatosian posted:Yeah, but I've got a showing scheduled for tomorrow, and usually they pull that "just send me a check" poo poo over email. And the place has been listed for 24 days, rent has dropped $350 a month in that time. I guess it'll probably be obvious. There's also the scam where someone rents a place for a month or two. This gives them access. They usually sublet or something and pay with cash. In that month or two they show dozens of people the place and 'rent' it to whoever wants it. Come move in day they are long gone with everyone's first month + deposit, with the original landlord trying to work out why there are 7 moving vans outside all trying to move stuff in.
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Mar 2, 2014 20:05
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AuntBuck posted:http://www.crimemapping.com Are there any other websites for looking at crime reports on a map? That one shows zero crimes for the past year in Albany/Schenectady NY, which I know is a big fat lie. That area has a decent amount of crime & we are apartment hunting, so it'd be nice to get an accurate look at what types of crimes are in what sections. Edit: I found a site that's much better for my purposes...assuming it's accurate. It shows crime rates & statistics for sections of each city. In case anyone else could find it handy, it's... http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/ IdeoPhanthus fucked around with this message at 01:52 on Mar 4, 2014 |
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Mar 3, 2014 02:14
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So I bought a portable dishwasher only to have my landlady immediately inform me that I'm not allowed to have it. It's on the lease in the fine print-- I signed it like a year ago so hell if I remembered-- and after inquiring, it's legally okay for a rental agency to do this. So what I'm just wondering is if anyone knows why a policy like this would exist at all? Why would they hate my having clean dishes? 
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Mar 6, 2014 03:58
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A portable dishwasher is one that you basically pull out and hook up to the sink, right? The reason that they don't want them is that if you are a retard and hook it up incorrectly before going to bed/out/etc., it will end up dumping tons of water all over the place, which is a tremendous amount of damage. Maybe 90% of people can manage it, but you can't afford to total your property every tenth tenant. This is the same reason that many leases have clauses about waterbeds - if your dog jumps on it and ruptures the thing while you are at work it will drain a thousand gallons into the apartment building before anyone knows what's up.
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Mar 6, 2014 04:10
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Yeah, it's like that. Fair enough, but ugh. I was so excited.
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Mar 6, 2014 04:15
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Guy Axlerod posted:Can anyone recommend a couch that will fit up a narrow set of stairs? How about a sectional?
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Mar 7, 2014 16:44
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demozthenes posted:How about a sectional? Or an Ikea Flatpack. The Söderhman comes in lovely flat boxes and would fit up the stairs no problem. Just got one myself and liked it so much I went back to buy more sections the next week
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Mar 8, 2014 18:48
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Nuntius posted:Or an Ikea Flatpack. The Söderhman comes in lovely flat boxes and would fit up the stairs no problem. Just got one myself and liked it so much I went back to buy more sections the next week If only there were an Ikea near here.
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Mar 8, 2014 19:09
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Falcon2001 posted:Here's a question - I'm trying to find places with a decent commute to my work and my fiancee's work - does anyone know of a google maps API tool or something like that that can take two locations and show you places within a given commute time of them both? Padmapper does this with My Places. It'll show commute time for driving, walking bike and public trans. for any address you give it. Only thing I wish Padmapper had was a not lovely Android app or if it was mobile optimized.
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Mar 12, 2014 05:14
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So I just made an appointment to view an apartment. However, when I called they said that the apartment's rent was $650. Their ad said $600. Should I even bother asking about this? I'm still interested in the apartment even if it's $50 more than I expected.
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Mar 12, 2014 16:57
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What does it traditionally mean when you pay your first and last months rent at the time you move into a rental? Does this mean that the month I chose to move out is covered in advance, or does it cover the following month after I've moved out when the landlord will be cleaning the place for new tenants?
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Mar 13, 2014 13:55
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It would cover the last month of rent that you are contractually obligated to pay rent. So if you signed a 12 month lease and didn't renew, you are prepaying the 12th month of rent. Or if you're month-to-month right now and you told the landlord that you're moving at the end of April, then it means that you've already paid April's rent.
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Mar 13, 2014 14:22
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