Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Rent and renting

Loans for NYC Moving Expenses

incomple — Tue, 14 May 2013 07:29:25 -0800

I'm planning to move from one NYC neighborhood to another at the end of the summer. Though I'm 99% sure I'll be able to cover all potential expenses (movers, security deposit, first/last month's rent, broker's fee), I was wondering if there's a reputable company that advances small loans to help cover these costs. Though at this point I'm fully expecting to be able to cover all the expenses, I'm worried about the possibility of some sort of emergency that would necessitate dipping into these savings. The amount that I would potentially need to borrow would be small (absolute worst case scenario, probably $4000), and could be repaid reasonably immediately.

I have doubts about my bank (Chase) advancing such a loan, though I'll be thrilled if anyone tells me otherwise. I'm also strongly considering asking for an increase to my credit limit, because though I have yet to encounter a landlord who takes payments by card, I know that could be the thing that preserves my bank balance in an emergency.

Basically, any advice on how to cover my ass, beyond just crossing my fingers, would be appreciated.

Someone already used "Shipping up to Boston" but I can't think of anything else because I have all these questions.

woodvine — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 20:36:24 -0800

Moving to Boston from the South. Single parent. So many questions. I asked this question, which turned out to be completely irrelevant, because I just got an offer from Eye Bee Emm in Waltham, which I'm taking. I'll be moving in January. I'm stoked, but after doing some preliminary research, I have a lot of questions.

Where should I live? I'm most excited about the big city aspect of this, but as I peruse Craigslist, holy shit is living in the city going to be expensive. Waltham or Watertown seem like they might be okay, but are they very suburban? Should I try to find a reasonably-priced place in Somerville or Cambridge in order to feel more in the city?

Related to this is the fact that said company will be covering broker's fees, if I use a broker from their approved list. I should use a broker, right? But won't they steer me toward more expensive apartments, as that will up their fees?

What should my apartment budget be? I need two bedrooms, or one bedroom with an office space that I can use as a kid bedroom. I need on-site laundry, a bathtub for the kid, and would really prefer a dishwasher. Other than that, it can pretty much be a closet. I would like to say $1100 if heat is not included, or $1300 if it is, in a less expensive area (like Watertown or JP?). Is that even possible? (Craigslist says no.) If not, what is a "good" price for what I need?

I would rather not keep my car, but it looks like the only bus that goes by work is the 70A, and it isn't particularly efficient. Am I right in thinking I'll need my car to commute to North Waltham? Especially since I'm also going to be dropping the little vine off at daycare and picking him up again after work.

Money is going to be tight for me, because though the offer is a good one, I am a single parent and will need full-time childcare. Childcare centers appear to charge approximately four (4!) times what I'm paying now, in Memphis, to a home daycare. Mercy. What's a good/reasonable price for a home daycare in the city? How about outside of the city? I saw this question, which was very helpful, but doesn't quite answer the good deal price point question.

How about way outside of the city? What if I go live in... Sudbury or Natick or something? I assume these outer towns will be too irritatingly/boringly suburban for me, but also an order of magnitude less expensive from a housing and childcare perspective. Am I correct? Should I just suck it up and move further out for the kid's/my wallet's sake?

Do you know of any Facebook groups for Boston-area parents? The "Alternamamas" group I belong to here in Memphis has been instrumental to my survival as a single parent and it would be nice to find something similar.

What am I not considering here?

Apartment hunting with a mold allergy (Chicago)

randomname25 — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 11:03:54 -0800

I have a rather serious mold allergy. How should I go about finding a mold-free (or almost mold-free) apartment in Chicago? My allergy is bad enough that levels of mold that might be tolerable to other people make me cough, sneeze, wheeze, get itchy eyes, itchy throat, etc. after 30-60 minutes. Unfortunately, this is not so immediate that I can just detect whether a place is livable from a 10 minute viewing.

I suspect that telling prospective landlords about my allergy in initial Craigslist emails may be scaring them off/making them believe I'm a pain in the ass, even if the advertised apartment doesn't have any mold issues. Should I wait for a phone call? Or maybe the actual viewing, because they've already invested some time, and it's harder to lie to someone if you're looking them in the eye? (Man, these mental games...)

Everywhere I've ever lived has had air conditioning, with the exception of my college dorms (but for some reason they were all fine). Is A/C something I need to make essential in my search? (I'd rather not, but I guess that's life.) Should I be searching for newer buildings, and if so, how? Craigslist postings almost never list the age of the building.

If it matters, I'm looking to live on the North side of Chicago, along the red line (or brown or blue). Before I realized this truly is a dealbreaker, I was mostly looking at places in the $550-$700 range in Rogers Park, Edgewater, and comparable nearby neighborhoods. Is that budget unrealistic if you really can't deal with mold? $850 is my ABSOLUTE max including heat, and I'd really rather not pay that much. But maybe that's unavoidable? Are there other neighborhoods I should consider? Keep in mind that I'm female and small so safety's a major concern.

Finally: would using any of these apartment services be a reasonable solution?

For those of you who saw my previous question, yes, the apartment had hidden mold, but luckily the manager let me out of the lease.

Renter's Insurance in California?

rainbowbrite — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 09:00:14 -0800

Renter's Insurance in California? I have never had renter's insurance before, but I've decided I now have enough 'stuff' that it would be a good idea. But, I have no idea how to go about it! I do not have a car, and all my friend's with renter's insurance have simply added it to their car insurance. I'm wondering - what are the best companies to go with (I am in CA), and what do I need to do from my end - I've heard photos of all my belongings, although that sounds like a lot of work! Any other tips with actually getting them to pay up if something happens (I've heard horror stories here, and don't really want to pay for insurance if it will end up being useless should something bad happen.)

apartment hunting in SF during boom times

mrunderhill — Tue, 22 May 2012 19:56:23 -0800

We're trying to find an apartment to rent in SF (1-2br in the Mission or Noe Valley) and it's difficult. Competition is intense (20+ candidates showing up to see a open houses). What kind of things can we do to stand out from the crowd during the entire process?

What do I need to know about buying vs renting?

Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 11:56:44 -0800

Teach-Me-About-Renting-Vs-Buying Filter: I'm in my mid-20s and have been in my "grown up job" for about a year now, and it's about time to get my own place. What do I need to know, beyond just comparing rent and mortgage payments? A friend of mine will be back in town this summer to start his job (the offer is already signed and accepted), and we're talking about renting a place together. Given the price of houses and rent (we're talking $80-$115k compared to a median $800 rent) in the suburbs of Milwaukee, it seems like it's worth taking a look at buying.

I know about the NYT calculator, and with our numbers we get a break-even date of 6-8 years down the road.

My questions:
-What other expenses do we need to consider? Is there a way to estimate maintenance and other owner-related costs?
-What exactly does the break-even point mean to us? What does the chart tell us about selling in a few year if our situation changes?
-What am I cluefully ignorant about that I should be asking? What sort of fees are involved with buying a house? Links to things for me to read might be helpful here. I know that 2 people buying a house together has its own special legal and social/relational considerations. I'm not asking about that yet.

Miscellaneous Details
-Neither of us have lived in traditional rental situations before. He's lived in dorms all through school, and I've lived at home except for one year at a school owned townhouse.
-We're both reasonably handy around the house
-Both of our jobs are pretty stable (as much as one can say that). Should anything change in that regard, I could most likely stay put, while he would most likely need to move out of the city, if not the state.
-My gut feeling is biased against renting, so any explanations about the financial pluses of renting could be helpful.

What are the best websites to find a place to rent in Perth, Western Australia?

Year of meteors — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 18:58:44 -0800

What are the best websites to find a place to rent in Perth, Western Australia? I am trying to find an apartment, flat or villa to rent in Perth, Western Australia. (Preferably in the Maylands or Bayswater area.)

So far I have been using http://www.realestate.com.au

Is there another website out there that I should be using as well?

Thanks!

Should I pay a deposit despite a weird clause in the application?

speedgraphic — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 19:40:27 -0800

I'm renting an apartment in Denver, CO, and the property manager is asking I pay a deposit in the form of a money order mailed to his address or delivered to the onsite manager to hold the apartment. I've checked the property out with the onsite manager, and it looks great. Worryingly, the application says that if offered the apartment and I refuse to sign the lease, the deposit will be kept. Is this normal, and is there anything else I should be worried about? Here's the actual phrasing: "I (we) hereby make application for occupancy of the described apartment unit in the terms specified.
The deposit money accompanying this application is to be refunded immediately if application is not approved.

If this application is approved, I (we) agree to enter into a Agreement of Lease for the apartment unit terms and rental as outlined
herewith. If I (we) refuse to enter into an Agreement of Lease when offered by the management, or if occupancy is not taken within 5
days after the occupancy date indicated, the deposit made shall be retained by the management.

At the time the Agreement of Lease is executed the application deposit made herewith will be applied to and become a part of the
Security Deposit in accordance with the terms specified therein. The balance of any Security Deposit, the first month’s rent and any
miscellaneous fees will become due at that time."

The house I rent is going to hell, and the landlord is M.I.A. What to do?

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 07:04:56 -0800

Landlord Fiasco Filter: landlord dug up entire yard to replace pipe, then disappeared for two months, leaving the entire yard a giant pile of dirt which has now turned to mud. And it's getting worse. He is unreachable. What to do? So much special snowflake after the jump. YANAL/YANML: Long, long story, see the end for a tl;dr. And thank you all in advance.

This is in Portland, Oregon.

The Background

My SO, myself and one other person rent a house. There was another housemate living in the basement apartment until last June, when, due to poor initial construction, the water drain pipe, which was simply emptying the rain water from the gutters straight into the ground, caused water to flood the basement apartment, destroying the carpet and a portion of the wall. As there was already a mold problem in the basement that the landlord refused to do anything about, the housemate in the basement simply moved out.

After the basement renter moved out, the landlord started working on fixing it. He hired some workers to come to the house and dig up most of the yard, removing pieces of foundation in the process and leaving mounds and mounds of dirt all over the front yard, the driveway and the backyard. The drain was replaced and then the landlord and his hired help all disappeared. The basement was never fixed to rent out again, and has since been unoccupied. All the tools, stacks of cement blocks, garbage, etc. have all been left laying around the yard and the driveway. This was two months ago, and because this is Portland, the rain has turned all of the large dirt mounds he left into mud slides.

His truck full of trash has also been sitting in front of our house for this entire period of time (~2 months).

Over the weekend, to make matters worse, because installing the pipe had required him to dig out around the fence that surrounds our backyard, and because of the rain and wind, the fence gave way, fell over, and is now leaning against the side of our house.

It should be noted that this unfinished project is only one of the many things that really need to be fixed - the steps out the back door are so rotten and dilapidated that it's only a matter of time before they collapse under someone. These things I've been cool with letting slide. But the situation outside is getting pretty crazy.

Our landlord is, for all intents and purposes, unreachable. Despite many calls to him and messages left by all housemates, no calls have been returned.

It should also be mentioned that shortly after we moved into the house, we realized that the landlord was not really financially solvent, and that he was in any number of mortgage assistance programs, was receiving many letters a day from collection and state agencies, etc. Several times we have had foreclosure notices on the door, only to later be told that 'something had been worked out.' The most recent foreclosure notice said the house was going up for public auction at the end of January. We're all assuming that, as in the past, 'something will be worked out' and the landlord will keep the house. But who knows? (It's also incredibly strange that the landlord, who is having mortgage problems, has left a basement apartment unfixed and un-rented for now nearly half a year).

Last month when we paid our rent, which we deposit into his bank account at the bank, apparently (my housemate made the drop) a manager had to be called as there were issues with his account and the teller didn't know if she could even accept the checks. I'm assuming his assets are frozen or his income is being garnished by the state or something of that sort.

We signed a lease when we first moved in, which expired in July. When the landlord was at the house installing a new pipe, we asked repeatedly to sign a new lease, which he said was happy to do, but we never heard from him again regarding the lease. So I guess we are now, by default, on a month-to-month lease.

Why not just walk away? Well, we like the house, the neighborhood, and we like our housemate. Moving is a pain, and we don't really want to. We just want things fixed, and for our landlord to respond in a timely manner to our concerns. We pay rent, after all.

Questions:

1) What is the next step here? Since he isn't responding to any of us, I'm tempted to simply leave him a message saying that I will be withholding rent until he contacts us and establishes a plan for making the house habitable and taking care of the necessary repairs.

2) Our other option would be to simply do the repairs ourselves and bill our landlord, perhaps in the form of rent-reduction, acceptable under Oregon Tenant Rights: If a landlord refuses to provide certain kinds of services, and if you did not cause the problem, you may correct the problem if you first give written notice to the landlord. In the written notice, be sure to define the problem and give the landlord a reasonable amount of time to make the repairs. In some circumstances, you may then deduct the cost of the repairs from your rent, after submitting the receipts to the landlord. The law limits the time you have to wait, the kinds of problems you are allowed to fix, and the amount of money you are allowed to spend.

I know landlords are often difficult to deal with, and I'm pretty easy going generally about repairs getting done, etc. But it's been two months without a word and without so much as a sign of intention to do anything.

Advice? Thank you so much everyone. Anon because I have Portland friends on MetaFilter. I will be actively watching this thread and will follow-up with Jessamyn if there are questions.

tl;dr Landlord abandoned construction on house halfway through and has become unreachable. Do I continue to pay my rent?

Thanks again!

Sorry guys, I have to be up in the morning!

pwnguin — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 15:49:31 -0800

How do I go apartment shopping in a small town? I just accepted a job offer in Manhattan (Kansas). It's a small college town, where the two biggest employers are probably the University, and a military base a short drive away. I've lived there as a student before, but I've never had to go through the hassle of apartment shopping. Now that all my buddies have graduated and left town, I don't have any viable roommates I can trust. This is a very off season time to go shopping for apartments.

I've checked out craigslist, which is mostly filled with subleasers needed for 3 or 4 bedroom dwellings. It's certainly an option, but I expect there's going to be a lot of personality and lifestyle conflict, so I'm trying to look for something smaller, like a 1 bedroom apartment, or just eating the cost of a 2 bedroom.

I guess I have a bunch of related questions:
1) I've heard of realtors who help with apartment shopping, but how's that work, and are they available outside NYC sized cities? Is there an association I can call and get a reference to a realtor in the area or something?
2) Are there buying guides I can read on what I need to inspect / look at while touring apartments?
3) Is this a bad time of year, or a good time of year, for apartment hunting in a college town? On the one hand, there's less available stock, on the other hand, there's also less demand.
4) How much stock should I put in apartment ratings websites? I assume there's going to be an adverse selection and yelp type problem, but there's also an incentive for owners to self-review. Do these cancel out, or is there a site I can trust with this?
5) Renters insurance. I don't own very many things, and have a bank account balance roughly the size of my total physical assets other than my car. Do I really need this, or am I better off self-insuring?

Help walk us through signing a commercial lease.

soma lkzx — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 10:10:09 -0800

What are some important things you should know before signing a lease on a commercial space? New building, storefront, Brooklyn. Help us get as not-screwed as possible. We're an educational organization that hosts a metric ton of different classes in Brooklyn. What do we need to keep an eye out for?

We have a preliminary meeting today with the building owners. It's a storefront space in a new building in an up-and-coming area, and the space is still being built out. We do have a broker.

There's just a ton of stuff going into this. Things like insurance, rent increases, buildout requests, utilities, building maintenance and a hundred other things. While we think we're decently prepared, talk to us like we're rather bright children.

And don't worry, we aren't going to go through this without a lawyer. The process happened more quickly than we thought, so we don't have one yet - feel free to make recommendations (we're in Brooklyn).

On a side note - anything useful but easily missed that we should include in the buildout? We'd be working with them on that.

Landlord has vanished with my money.

Anonymous — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 12:04:46 -0800

My former landlord is ignoring my communications and hasn't returned an accidental rent over-payment. What are my legal options here in the UK? When I moved out of my last flat in May, my bank failed to stop the standing order sending money to my landlord.

My landlord emailed me to notify me of this, then stopped replying to my emails and text messages. He's sitting on about £1200 of my money.

What's my recourse here? Is there any legal action I can take that won't consume more money than is at stake? To be clear - I'm not talking about a deposit here, that was settled separately.

Where's a good, reputable, online place to rent professional/prosumer video and audio equipment?

nitsuj — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 07:28:43 -0800

Where's a good, reputable, online place to rent professional/prosumer video and audio equipment? I've got a video project coming up, and I need to rent some equipment for about six weeks. Specifically, I need a high quality, multi-transmitter (3 would be nice) wireless lav mic system. Something with standard audio jacks, too -- not XLR. These can easily go for well over $500 if I were to buy it, but the project doesn't have the budget for purchase. Is there a good place to rent something like this online?

We are sure you will be pleased with this agreement.

porpoise — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 10:10:35 -0800

What is a fair way to estimate, over an entire year, the proportion of an electrical bill that is being used for electrical heating? (Previously) The management company got back to me, is this a fair estimate of electrical use for heating? This is based on one hydro/electric bill for the months of April and June.

BC Hydro provided us with the following, approximately 40% of the BC Hydro bill owing is from Electric Heat, as well, they provided a appliance calculator to further determine an approximate amount:

You can find attached the appliance calculator reference, which shows the following:

Watts: 1500
Quantity: 4 heaters
Average hours per week: 14(approximately 2 hours a day)
Kwh:4368

Dollars per year: $262.00 (Dollars per month: $262.00/12= $21.83/month)

Based on what the BC Hydro representative mentioned, 40% of the bill being electric heat, the calculation would be:

40% of $96.28 =38.52 / 63 days = $19.26/month

We have averaged out the two approximate monthly costs for the “electric heat” of the BC Hydro bill, and offer the rent at a reduced rate by $20.00/month.

We are sure you will be pleased with this agreement.

Although intuitively it feels like they're lowballing me, I'm inclined to take this settlement as a compromise between lawyering up and not receiving any concessions. I fully realize that the summer months do not require heating (oh do I realize that), but is heating during Winter going to be exponentially more than late Spring?

Utah Filter: Life in the valley

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 12:47:13 -0800

I'm moving to Orem, Utah in a few weeks. What are some of the "nicer" neighborhoods? Details: I'm a nervous driver and would prefer access to public transportation (I know this is a a big constraint), female, single, am not LDS, not from the US, and am from a visible minority (I mention the last since I notice a distinct lack of heterogeneity even among my future colleagues).

I am looking for rentals. However, online listings seem to be mostly for students and I want to avoid predominantly student housing. I can't find many townhouses or condos, and not many individual listings. There are several listings for professionally managed apartment complexes and all these seem to have negative reviews (even after factoring in the mostly negative tone of apartment reviews in general). My colleagues are helpful, but they live outside Orem and commute, which I would be willing to do except for the driving thing...

I've seen some very useful posts about this area, but not specifically about renting. Anonymous since I don't want my future co-workers to know about my misgivings.

Help me sublet a room in my home

hincandenza — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 17:12:14 -0800

Looking for help on becoming a good, legal, and happy subletter in Seattle. I recently bought my own home and am considering renting out the front-side bedroom. I'd like help knowing the right legal/tax steps to take, a good idea of price range, as well as precautions and things to avoid (extreme verbosity inside). I recently bought a lovely new townhome in Seattle's Capitol Hill area, and couldn't be happier with it. However, it's a 3br townhome and I'm currently living alone, so while I certainly don't mind and can afford to keep living by myself, it seems a waste to have a bedroom that still has that new house smell going completely unused. However I do find a roommate- and since I'm not financially pressured to rent, I'll likely lean towards finding the right friend-of-friend referrals more than taking my chances on CL- I want to make sure I'm doing all the right things for myself and my potential roommate.

### Financial issues:
I assume I declare rental income as *some* form of income. Can I just do this while filing my 2010 taxes next spring, or will I have to file quarterly taxes? Also, are there any tax benefits to subletting (I've heard for example that if you are subletting, you can deduct some home improvements)? Will I need to contact my insurance company if I have a room rented, or is that irrelevant?

### Legal issues:
Are sublet/room rental agreements in Seattle inherently "caveat renter", or will all the rights and responsibilities of a landlord fall to me (and what should I know)? Where would one get good boilerplate sublet agreements?

I looked at tenantsunion.com but the information there seems geared towards people renting the traditional private unit with a landlord more than renting a room. I want to be a good roommate/landlord and if either of us think things aren't working out- short of dangerous or criminal activity- I'd give the person plenty of time to gracefully find another place. But I think it's obviously important to make sure I know what I am obliged to do legally and what risks I undertake in renting.

### Price range
Curious what sublets would go for; I assume considerably less than a private unit since it is shared. The location is just north of 12th and E John right by the 43 & 8 lines, and is a little off from the street. The house is a brand new townhome, all modern amenities like radiant floor heating, front-loading steam washer/dryer, etc, as well as two-car garage. The room itself is about 10'x15' with a large closet and a 3rd-floor sunny western view of the mountains, and has its own full bath. The third bedroom is on the first/garage floor, and is almost too small to call a bedroom, so it could be a bonus room/storage as needed that we could share.

I was thinking around $650-700 is a reasonable price including all utilities + cable. But I don't know if that's pricing out the kind of people looking to rent just a room, or if I'm actually underselling it. Since I have no financial need to rent I'd much rather get a great roommate than squeeze every penny out of the room, but no reason I should be too out of whack on price range either way.

### Caveats
If you have any horror stories or cautions about things not to do- how to avoid re-enacting "Pacific Heights" for example- or just good roommate tips that help smooth over rough spots, that'd be useful too.

Did I get ripped off by a misleading lease agreement?

porpoise — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 14:46:47 -0800

Vancouver BC Rental Agreement: Heat and Hot Water included. Or is it? My lease at a new apartment I moved into at the beginning of April, in Vancouver BC, states that heat and hot water are included.

I got a massive hydro (electricity) bill just now (well, much more massive than any previous hydro bill I've ever received in BC). I called up BC Hydro to see if an error was made. According to BC Hydro, the units in my building have their own electrical heat, tied to the resident's hydro bill. I emailed my landlord/management company and they kind of gave me a runaround and would not actually confirm or deny that heat is included in the rental price, other than that heat is tied to the resident's hydro meter, and well, residents have to pay their own hydro bill.

All the other places I've rented which state that heating is included... well, the heating was included and I did not have to pay for that utility.

Is my lease agreement erroneous? Is there anything I can do about it?

Fake landlords

XMLicious — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:41:11 -0800

My friend, renting a room in a house, has found that the people he was renting from didn't actually own the house. He came home to find an eviction notice on his door and the locks changed. The fake landlords have moved all of their stuff out, changed their phone number, and are gone without a trace. Now my friend can't get to his stuff. My friend is in North Carolina and I'm in New England, so I can't help him out in person, unfortunately.

He came home after work a couple of days ago to find the eviction notice on his door and the locks changed. He stayed the night at a friend's. He went back the next day and briefly ran into a person who appears to be the real landlord. The real landlord didn't want to have anything to do with him: wouldn't let him into the house and didn't really want to talk to him except to suggest that he arrange a meeting between himself, the fake landlords / subletters, and the real landlord. He hasn't been able to get in touch with the fake landlords at all.

He went to the police. The police seemed to confirm that the real landlord is genuinely the owner and had my friend fill out a report on the incident but they didn't appear to be able to offer any real help.

The contents of the room are all of his personal possessions: a couple of pieces of furniture, a laptop, personal paperwork such as a copy of his birth certificate, copies of his US military records, and correspondence addressed to him like bank and credit card statements, and sundry other items. The object is to get all of this stuff back.

Obviously the ideal situation would just be to get ahold of the fake landlords and persuade them to help in getting it all back but assuming that is not possible: I would expect that the real landlord has no incentive to help him and in fact may have disincentives because some of the remaining stuff in the house might belong to the fake landlords; by letting it go the real landlord might be giving up leverage over the fake landlords if they still owe rent or might be letting my friend steal something if he is lying or had a fight with the fake landlords, et cetera. And I would expect that the police are in a similar position and anyways may not even have any legal standing to intervene in the situation as it is now.

So my guess is that the appropriate next step is for my friend to contact a lawyer who can construct a legal incentive for the real landlord or the police to help him get his stuff back.

Questions: Is that correct, is there any recourse other than getting a lawyer involved? My friend is concerned about the expense of getting a lawyer involved - is there any way to guesstimate or set an upper limit on the cost? Any suggestions for particular things he should have the lawyer do? And do you have any advice on selecting a lawyer with the appropriate skills and background for this?

You Are Not His Lawyer and all that, of course.

Finding a rental in Portland OR

Anonymous — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 09:36:34 -0800

How crazy am I to rent a place in Portland, Oregon without seeing it first? I'm moving to Portland next month, hurray! (Yes I have a job there, but this is anonymous because it's not quite official on both sides yet.)

I'll have my family (spouse, kids, dog) in tow and cannot get into town before we arrive without super complicated family logistics and huge expense.

I know Portland enough to know the neighborhoods I'd like to live in, really based on the schools I'd like my kids to attend. I can look around various neighborhoods on Google Maps, and I've been using Portland Maps to get information on various houses and neighborhoods.

I have a friend in Portland who will, I think, be glad to visit places we are serious about renting. I'm also wondering if I might be able to hire someone to do this for me so as not to burden my friend.

My goal is to minimize disruption for my kids especially, and to get them enrolled in school as soon as possible, and for that, we need an address. So ideally I'd have someplace for us to live before we arrive in town.

The alternative would be for all of us to live in a hotel for a week or longer, until I can find us someplace. I worry I'd be so pressured to get into any house that we'd have to compromise or else be stuck in a hotel.

But is it crazy to sign a lease without seeing the rental? If you have done this, did it work out okay? And do you have any suggestions for making it less crazy? (Like perhaps asking for an three month lease to start.)

Email is leasingwithoutseeing@gmail.com

Thailand [Krabi] internet and long term accommodation

simplesharps — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 21:46:36 -0800

I'm planning on taking a working holiday mid april for two months (or longer) in Thailand with a friend. I have a few questions... Last year I spent some time in South East Asia and really enjoyed myself. We both like the sounds of Krabi but neither of us have been there.

Would you recommend Krabi or some place else? We like relaxed, green, away for huge cities but not rural living (need internet & gym). We're only going to stay in one spot for the whole time.

Any recommendations on places to rent? Sharing or separate. An apartment or house would be nice. Middle price range - no idea really how much that would be. Close to a gym would be best.

Who would you recommend for high speed internet? What's the speeds we can expect?

Many thanks!

Apartment and tips for Paris move

avocade — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 13:48:54 -0800

Hello, Hive, I'm planning on moving to Paris a few months for work and pleasure. As a native Swede and a member of the EU group of states, I guess I'll have an easier time getting a somewhat reasonably priced apartment reasonably close to Cité, Montmartre or what have you (Notre Dame I guess would be the center point everything revolves around). Has the Hive got any good suggestions regarding apartment-finding? Other tips on good areas to live, areas to avoid, would be great as a general guide. Also, since I would stay more than a few weeks, and since it probably would help getting a better apartment, is it preferable to write myself in Paris, or could I still be written in Gothenburg (Sweden)?

I'm asking since I will still be working within the context of my own private company (OLBproductions.com) which is registered (and taxed) in Sweden. I'm not sure how it would complicate things if I temporally "switched nationality."

When I lived in Freiburg, Germany for six months, I was written there, but then didn't have a business of my own to be concerned about.

Lastly, as this is a new town, and mostly a new country for me (I've been in Paris for only a few days before, and lived in France at all for about a month altogether; Nice, Lyon, Privas) tips in general on the living: the eating; the washing of clothes; acquiring internet access; finding the best and most hidden restaurants (inexpensive or not); movie theaters showing films sans dubbing; best cappucino; good early bread (stupid question); clubs the likes of Berlin's Berghain (haven't been there? plan it now!), its hard-to-find underground modern music arenas, and New York's basement jazz clubs; good places to go for a run in the morning; turkish baths, etc, etc--simply a bunch of stimulating places one should visit when not working, to get away from it all.

Happy new 2009! (Will be a better one than most think.)

Is there a go-to website for apartment-hunters in Seattle?

cirocco — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:57:17 -0800

Is there a go-to website for apartment hunters in Seattle? I've looked on NWSource.com, The Stranger, Apartments.com, and several management companies' sites. All are showing very sparse results for in-city 1BRs under $1000. Am I being unrealistic in thinking I should be able to find a place in, say, Ballard or another commuter-friendly neighborhood within the city limits for 1K or less? Even when I expand my search parameters to under $1200, I am only finding a handful of available units.

I'm priced out of my current neighborhood, Capitol Hill, by ongoing yuppification, and I'm afraid I'm going to end up in Lynnwood or something unless I sell a kidney to make rent. I just can't believe there's less than a dozen vacancies in-city that meet my criteria; I must be looking in the wrong places. Help, please! My dad is severely diabetic and I can easily envision a future where he needs a kidney, so I am extra-reluctant to part with one.

Anyone got a room for rent in Fullerton, CA? How 'bout advice on said subject?

malapropist — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 05:36:18 -0800

I live with my parents, and I'm searching for a place to live for the first time. Somewhere near Cal State Fullerton. A question about credit checks, and how to improve my search. Last week, I posted an ad on Craigslist in an attempt to assemble three other people to find a 2 bedroom with. Unfortunately, it seems like some kind of catch-22; the roomies want you to have an apartment already, and the landlord wants you to have the roomies already. I've found a couple of people who were down to move in, one for as long as 72 consecutive hours. Unfortunately, they keep finding their own rooms to rent. Does this approach (the "find people to find an apartment" technique) often work?

I found a place that meets most of my criteria, though as the search wears on I'm finding my criteria less and less important. The landlord will be telling me today whether we passed the credit check, but big whoop because the other two roommates who submitted applications/credit check money have moved on. The landlord was firm on getting all of us to submit our applications together, no incremental submissions as I gathered roomies. So now I'm wondering just what it is that the landlord receives. Does he get a credit report, or just a number? Is it for all of us with no distinction between us, or is it three reports, one for each of us? If mine is okay (which it should be) but the other two were not as good, what's the likelihood of him allowing me to try it again with different roommies? If that were the case, would it be reasonable to have to pay for another credit check for myself? Would he even tell me if I asked whether it was my credit personally that was the problem? If it helps, this is a little four-plex with a single owner, not a large development or prop mgmt company.

Also, if anyone has general advice about finding a place to live, at the beginning of the school year, near Cal State Fullerton or Fullerton JC (which is where I'm attending this fall) in general, please. I'm getting desperate here. What's a good alternative to Craigslist? Roommates.com seems a bit stale.

BTW, I found myfirstapartment.com here on AskMe, and it was a big help. Thanks guys!

Help me find a Manhattan apartment for 3-6 months

kanuck — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 13:43:43 -0800

Looking for resources / advice on finding a Manhattan apartment for 3-6 months (Feb-July 2008). Furnished would be preferable, but I can deal with buying some throwaway furniture.

I'm open on price range, though if it gets up to "corporate temp housing" level expensive, that isn't too useful.

I live in Seattle and am expecting to take a trip in order to handle closing arrangements. I've considered just coming to NYC for a week (is that enough?) to do everything in person (looking at places, haggling, signing papers etc) -- thoughts on that approach? (in particular, how far in advance would be best to maximize my odds?).

Other thoughts:

1) Craigslist: most of the ads seem to be for comparatively short term sublets (days or weeks, rather than months). I'll probably post a "housing wanted" ad there at some point, but am really looking for other options.

2) Apartment brokers: given my requirements, will they useful / required?

3) Universities/colleges: do any in Manhattan make student housing available to non-students?

Getting ripped off by a property management firm. Help!

anthill — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 08:04:19 -0800

Ontario property management firm charging "service fees" just to apply for an apartment rental? This has got to be illegal. So here's the story: My girlfriend and I saw a nice apartment, went to see it, and decided to fil out an application form to find out the landlord would rent it to us. Problem: The landlord is a TransGlobe, a large property management firm. They demanded first and last month's rent (the latter in a certified cheque) before they'd process an application form to decide if they'd rent to us. Two days after making the application, we informed the rental agent that we'd changed our mind and had found another apartment, and could we please have our cheques back. Now the fun begins.

The property rental person "has to talk to her manager", and after more phone calls her manager says "sure, we'll return your money, less a $150 service fee". Why? because "we cash your cheque as soon as we approve you for tenancy".

What service? What to do? We never signed a lease, and we never moved into the apartment. In fact, this all happened within a few days of the current apartment's tenants giving two months' notice... so the apartment has never even been vacant.

Does this mean that this is a small claims court matter, or the Landlord and Tenant Board? I notice that the LTB website says, "The rent deposit must be used for the rent for the last month before the tenancy ends. It cannot be used for anything else, such as to pay for damages."

I'm not paying that $150. I'll take them to small claims court, phone their CEO, or write op-ed articles for newspapers if I have to.

Any legal eagles or other experienced negotiators have suggestions for how to proceed in talking with these jerks? My girlfriend has had enough and passed on the manager's contact information to me, so I have an opportunity to start fresh.