So apartment hunting SUCKS.
Like seriously sucks.
Any time you're looking for a place in a large city you have to wade your way through a lot of crap to find the gems.
And if you're lucky, you can actually afford the gems.
My problem is that 1, I need my apartment to be transit accessible so I can get back and forth to work. 2, I'm on a budget so aren't willing to drop $1,400 a month on an apartment. 3, I'd rather not live in a neighborhood that will get me shot. Oh and 4, no bugs. Or hookers. But more to come on that later.
You'd think these would be all be reasonable requests that wouldn't be TOO hard to accommodate.
Think again.
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| Bed Bug Registry's infestation map |
I'm wading through listings of places that are the size of a walk-in closet.
Places that are in areas of the city I wouldn't want to be in after dark.
And nice places that I'd love to live in if I could afford the staggering prices.
And what I've learned the most is that if you find a listing for a place that's in a good neighborhood, is a decent size, and is affordable there's almost ALWAYS a catch.
I mean how did people manage before the Internet. If it weren't for things like
www.myhood.ca and
www.bedbugregistry.com I could have very easily already moved into a place that could have turned out to be hell.
Here are some of the funnier (or scarier, depending on your mood) things I've found in some of the posts about buildings that in theory should be GREAT meaning they are all in good/safe neighborhoods, transit accessible and seemingly well maintained buildings renting 1-bedroom units approx. 600-800 square feet at a cost anywhere from $1,100 to $1,300 a month.
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| I love this. |
- Security bulletins on the tenant web portal with alerts about finding needles in the stairwells and hallways
- Bed bugs, roaches, centipedes and other assorted creepy crawlies
- Management randomly shutting off the hot water and or water in general for repairs with no notice (one guy said he never knew if he was going to shower before work in the morning!)
- Bicycles in the underground parking getting tires cut and one person who noted that one of the tenants would randomly smear dog poop on the handle bars of people's bikes.
- Funky food smells (this in the grand scheme of things isn't that bad)
- Wonky elevators that are constantly down for service (in a 2 story building this is just FUN)
- People pulling fire alarms as pranks on a regular basis at 3am
- And my favorite, a building that has a known "Escort Service" operating out of 2 apartments. Now I'm not sure if the hookers live there or the manager/pimp/creep who runs it lives there. If push comes to shove I'd rather have hookers for neighbors than a pimp because I'm sure the hookers are perfectly nice ladies.
So this is my dilemma. I either need to pick the lesser of a few evils that I'm willing to tolerate (no bugs!!! I'll take the hookers over the bugs!!) Or I need to consider living in a place that is at the very top of my budget or even a bit more. The positive thing is that I'm currently living with my parents and am able to put a decent amount of money onto my remaining student debt which means that the longer it takes me to find a place, the better a financial situation I will be in. Not to say that I want to live with my parents for 4 months but if that's the reality then at least I'm saving up money and hopefully cutting my debt in half. Which is an opportunity I would otherwise never have.
So in the meantime, Jasper and I are going to say no to bugs and hookers.
Can you really blame me?
Cheers,
Ash
Not only does this look EXACTLY like my cat Jasper, but he tends to sleep wrapped around my head and will randomly lick my forehead and hair. It's totally creepy and I asked the Vet about it and he said that it's very common. He sees me as his pack leader and it's common for animals to groom each other.
It's still creepy but clearly I'm not the only pet owner who's had to deal with it.