The Stress of Apartment Hunting

For almost a year, Dre and I have had several talks about moving in together, our goal is to find a quality 2 bedroom apartment/condo under $1,300 (honestly under $1,200 but we know to find better, we'll have to bump the price up a bit) with utilities and parking included, in a nice neighborhood, near a park, golf course, around a good range of stores/accessible necessities and near an expressway (so we can both get to work easily).

He and I have been searching for a while now and after 6 months plus of looking, we started to schedule tours, having gone on 4 so far. Scheduling tours and actually visiting apartments/condos has been difficult because our work schedules and free time are opposite. His off days are at the bringing of the week, mines are on weekends, I'm free after work but after work tour times have concluded and he's free but his car needs to be repaired.

Starting out, we were just going through several websites, tons of images, coming up with different lists of neighborhoods and rental listings. In between breaks at work or during our off days, we'd call 5-10 apartments daily or weekly. It became very frustrating because we did a lot of calling, left a lot of voicemails, messaged a lot of realtors, saved various listings to reach out to and I started driving around different neighborhoods in search of FOR RENT signs.

We began to double back to listings that were still available and ones that we've left messages with, we scheduled tours and went on a few in efforts to find a place we liked. We saw a 1 bedroom and a 2 bedroom together, the 1 bedroom was 4 walls with everything in an open space, nothing was sectioned off and I don't know if it was the fact that the space was small or because the current resident had large sized-furniture, but I didn't like it. This apartment showing made me feel claustrophobic, everything surrounded me, it made me nervous and it messed with my need to organize (maybe I'm a little OCD). We were offered an application, but needed to tour more places before deciding.

The 2 bedroom apartment was better, everything was sectioned off (bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, living room) and it had a patio/balcony area, everything was much more spacious and open. I really saw us living in this one or something similar to it. However, after touring both locations, neither had open availability, there were plenty of evictions, but due to the Pandemic and the Mayor's decision on housing at the moment, there wouldn't be an opening for us anytime soon. I was bummed, but knew I couldn't continue to get excited about a place only to be told there was no possibility of moving in, so we called more listings and continued scheduling tours.

We called more potential options, however realtors were looking to fill them by July 1st or August, but we're looking for June (specifically before the end of the month). We grew tired of just looking, we both admitted that and knew we could've been more proactive in our search, procrastination got to us and other life stuff got in the way. During off days and weekends we became more productive, giving each other lists, crossing the ones off we called or left voicemails with, and adding more options. I'd call places, speak to someone about touring and they'd tell me the apartment was already rented or I'd schedule a tour and the day before or morning of, I'd be informed that the apartment has been rented before I've seen it. Of course I felt upset, we'd missed out on another opportunity, but I couldn't allow that to stop me.

With his car needing repairs, Dre couldn't go tour physically, he could only look virtually or by images, I'd be the one driving to all the tours. The other problem was me waiting for Dre to see the apartments/condos or give his opinion. I needed his validation, yet he was trusting me and my judgement (with this being my first apartment ever, that was scary) because it's not going to be just me living there, we should come to an agreement together.

Therefore, we came up with the idea to videocall during apartment tours, I'd videocall him (while he's at work) so he could see the apartments in person and we could decide. Also, we decided to stop searching ourselves and ask for help. We asked my neighbor, who's also a Real Estate Broker, she was glad to help us search. She's been finding great options for us, and she's been meeting me for tours on the weekends. Honestly, we have to stop waiting around and select a place faster, because by that following week the options we liked become rented or temporarily unavailable. We aim to have a place before or by my birthday, June 26th, and I am very serious about meeting that goal. We are so close, I can feel it!