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Last Updated: Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:23:00 GMT

Tuesday, 29 January 2008

Apartment Hunting

I feel I have no clue what I'm doing. I went to see a place today. Not sure what my criteria are and I went alone so I have no other feedback. I don't think my lease is up until April 1 but I figured I should start looking in case I find something great early and since I have a dog I'm limited in my options. So today I went to this place near the Kendall Theater so it's an easy walk to MIT. Good because I'm close to work and close to home too during the day in case Cleo needs me to come home at lunch or something, especially since when we move she'll have trouble adjusting and could howl constantly while I'm gone and that might not be good w/ the people in the building. It's in a residential area in an apt. building on the first floor, easiest for moving my stuff in. It's a one bedroom and cheaper than I'm paying now. It's basically laid out kinda in a line. You walk in the front door into the living room then next to the living room is a bedroom and then next is a big kitchen and then just off the kitchen to the left is a bathroom. There's also a little room that leads to the back door for storage or whatever. I wouldn't know what to do w/ the space since I have nothing but it'd be possible to entertain. I could have people over, I could host runs and not worry about space. People could spend the night when visiting and there'd be room. Problem is it's the first place I've looked at and I have nothing else lined up. The lease is for Feb 1st and I need to give first and last months so I'd have to pay double rent for 2 months plus an extra month for last months rent. Most people in the building have dogs or cats so I'm hoping they'd be more tolerant of Cleo freaking out, like they are in my current location. There's no laundry in the building so I'd have to walk like I do now and I'm not sure how far it is, though the guy said they had laundromats all over. I didn't see one though, not that I looked very hard. The grocery would be a little issue. It's not as close as it is to me now, though I rarely go to it. I'd have to cab it home or do delivery probably which isn't too big a deal. I'd say I like my location now better but this is cheaper, more space and no roommates. Closer I guess to work so okay and there are plenty of restaurants and bars and the movie theater so it's not awful, it's just not Beacon Hill. Not sure what to do. Any suggestions?

Posted: Jan 29, 2008 13:30

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Category: /life

Rob Reed wrote at 2008-01-30 21:58:

I tried to comment yesterday. I don't know if you got it because my connection to the internet was flaky. If you got that, then just ignore this.

You said: Any suggestions?

I suggest that you make sure you understand that what you're thinking about involves paying 5 months worth of rent in 2 months (I realize that isn't quite accurate because one of those 5 months is the last month rent at the new place but...).

So I'm not saying that it's a bad idea but it seems very expensive.

The only other suggestion I have is that you make a list of any/all expenses you can think of along with an approx cost and then add up all of the costs. Then think about it a little longer to make sure you haven't forgotten anything.

You've never had to deal with an empty apt and the associated expenses and inconveniences/annoyances (at least not in a long time).

Think about things like: set up costs for services (like cable and internet access), housewares, etc. and find out what you'll be paying at a minimum for these things. For example it's difficult to not pay something like $60.00 - $80.00 for cable unless you don't have it at all (which is a joke - by the way satellite is sig cheaper if you can get it).

You'll need some way to back up your computer (I know you're not doing that now but that will eventually be a really bad thing, so you should plan on backing up somehow).

I don't know what your expenses will be, but you should try to figure it out.

It's true that most of these will be unavoidable but if they start to add up you may really want to think twice about heading into it paying for 3 months worth of rent unnecessarily.

I agree that it's tough to find an apartment with a dog but it only took you a couple of days to find one you like so even if it takes 10x as long, then you will still have plenty of time in March. Of course you can still look just in case someone is advertising now for April.

Even if you want to move early, do yourself a favor, wait until March, and save $1000. You can use it to cover other expenses even if you have the money.

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