Since the time of my last post, I have turned in all of my scholarship applications! I have also finished and turned in my final grad school application! AND, I have been offered a job for the summer! On top of that, I have made progress on both of my semester-long projects, gone apartment hunting with my parents, and sent out bachelorette party invitations for my roommate! So, overall, I have been super busy, hence the lack of posts. Sorry about that.
Here are a few lessons I learned while apartment hunting:
1. Take someone with you that will not be living in the apartment with you. This way you gain an outside perspective on things. Bonus points if it is someone highly invested in your safety (i.e. parents, boyfriend, personal body guard, etc.) because they can point out things like broken windows, NO WEAPONS ALLOWED posters, triple locks on people's doors, and other signs that a place might not be safe. You may laugh and say, "I would notice those things for myself." Let me tell you, when you see the low rent rate of some complexes, you tend to overlook blatant danger signs.
2. Make sure to ask *upfront* if they allow students to live in their buildings. I went to one complex, was given a lovely tour, sat down in the office to discuss details, only to have the lady see my sorority shirt and say, "Oh, sorry, but we can't let full-time students live here. Its a goverment thing." Awesome.
3. Pay attention to the way the office staff treat you. If you get the vibe that they are only tolerating your presence because you might pay them money, chances are they won't be any nicer when you live there because you are then under contractual obligation to pay them no matter what. That being said, it is not the end of the world to have rude office staff, but it will make your time there much more pleasant if they are nice.
4. Beware the prices listed as rent. Some of you may not need to hear this, but since I have been living at a complex where my rent check was all-inclusive (water, electricity, cable, internet, rent, sewage, fully furnished, etc.) I was taken aback that NO OTHER PLACE IN THE WORLD operates in this way. A base price of $450/mo. may look dandy, but then you figure in a $15 dollar water bill, approx. $60 electric bill, and any interent or cable you want to add (about $100 for a good bundle deal) you are paying WAY more than $450/mo. More like $625/mo. Oh, and did I mention that places with this low of rent usually include no washer/dryer connections? So that means you have to pay to do your laundry $1/wash, $1/dry. When you are operating on a student budget, these prices seem totally unreasonable without some God-given intervention (which I am still praying for!)
Anyway, just my thoughts on apartment hunting - and after hitting 20 complexes in the course of two days, I feel like I have achieved expert level status on the subject. On a last note, you may get defeated after seeing so many places, but don't worry, take your time to sort through everything you learned, and hopefully the best options will float to the top. I am currently still in the sorting phase.
Random thoughts:
--Glee comes back on April 10th, and we get to learn about Blaine's family!
--The Hunger Games movie is out, and while I did not get to attend the midnight premier (circumstances beyond my control kept me away) I will wear my embroidered shirt when my roommate and I go on Tuesday!
--Watching HGTV is much more fun than writing an research paper
--For some reason, the 6 loads of laundry I had to do today has not bugged me as much as laundry usually does :)
--I want to have an apartment to decorate the way I want it NOW. I want it NOW and I want to decorate it NOW! This intense feeling is probably a result of several things: too much HGTV, gearing up to move out of my old apartment, and the fact that I have been designing interiors my entire student career and have yet to see one come to life.
