Apartment Hunting 101

The house hunt has officially ended (alas!), and the great apartment caper of 2012 has begun!  In a little over a month, I will hopefully be moving to the East Valley with Chantel and Sicily (and Dallas and Fiyero), which will cut down on my gas bills considerably.

 I spent this afternoon running around to seven different complexes that all theoretically met our qualifications for living spaces.  Four have been stricken from the list, one is teetering, and two are actually pretty darn nice.  Hopefully we'll all agree and move in soon.

Here are a few things I learned today that might make apartment hunting more endurable.

• Don't go alone.  It's waaaay too boring, and you have no one to bounce ideas off of or compare notes with.  Nate was gracious enough to accompany me and save me from losing my mind, since Chantel and Sis are out of state.

• Don't go in summer if you live in Arizona.  (whoops.) 
  If you do, complexes that have a/c in their model rooms automatically win extra credit.  Complexes that give you free water also get bonus points.

• Bring your own water.  Only one of the seven gave us any, and it was welcome relief.  They also gave us cookies, which was cheery.

• Know what you want to ask, so you can find all the sneaky hidden fees.  Do your research first.

• Pay attention to the surroundings.  Neighborhood includes a golf course and a library?  Good!  Neighborhood includes a trailer park and a mall across the street?  Decidedly less good.

• When they ask you about pet rent, tell them your cats are Bengal tigers, which is really why you wanted that 3rd bedroom.  Most landlords will laugh at your jokes.  Some landlords have had their senses of humor surgically removed, and this is a good way to tell in advance.

• Notice the neighbors.  The creepy guy checking you out as he drives slowly by is probably a bad sign.  The orange girl with too many facial piercings and unwashed hair, who knows, maybe she's really nice.  Lots of old people?  Might be a quiet place to live.

• If you're pretty sure you're not going to rent at a place, test your acting skills on the office ladies.  If you have a fake sparkly ring, this is funnier.  It's also probably funnier if you actually go through with it, which we mostly didn't.  If you're renting an apartment for 3 girls and go in looking like a couple, though, it really throws people off.