exsequar | Apartment searching! Help!

So I'm sitting here unsure and a little confused and then I realize - hey! My flist will be able to help! For they are Wise and Worldly and have Rented Apartments Before.

For that is my next challenge: to find an apartment. Which I have never done before, not like this. So basically - how does it happen? Particularly, how does it happen when you live many hours away and won't be able to get up there to visit until very close to the actual time you want to move in?

I want to move in some time in early July. And I'd prefer to see a place and meet potential roommates before I make a decision, so does that mean I can't even express interest in any places yet? Or can I email people and say, hey, I won't be able to check out the place until June but I am interested? Just to kind of get my foot in the door? I'm a little confused about the logistics.

Also, any general advice about apartment seeking would be much appreciated. What warning signs should I look for? What are really good features to get? Halp!

Oh and has anyone lived in Ann Arbor, or nearby, and has any advice for me specifically regarding the town?

I know you won't fail me, O Mighty Flist. ♥

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In my experience, people don't usually know they're going to be looking for someone this far ahead. It happens, but not a lot. I've found two past apartments via craigslist, but we also just went driving around in the area calling places.

I think you'll probably have to wait until it's closer to when you'll move. You could still look, and you might get lucky, though!

Maybe plan to visit the area at the beginning of June and just go all-out hunting, internet, local rental publications, driving by random apartment buildings and looking for vacancies, etc. I assume that the part of town you'll be moving to is occupied by other college students? It might be fairly easy at that point, because many of them will be leaving for the summer and giving up their apts, so there will be more openings.

The (odd) thing about Ann Arbor is that it's 40,000 students in a city of 130,000, so pretty much all of the apartments are being rented out by students of some sort. I've found loads on Craigslist that are available either this summer or in August. I'm just wondering if I should get in touch with people and say "hey, I like your place, if it's still available in June I'd like to come see it." I asked a current grad student in my program and she said now's a good time to start looking because they get taken up so quickly, but I don't really want to commit to some place before I've seen it. Hrm! A pickle.

Oh, that's cool! Yeah, I'd start looking now. Maybe you can plan a trip to see the ones you like best a little sooner? I mean, I was thinking the biggest hurdle was going to be waiting for stuff to open up, but if there are already ones that say when they're going to be available, I'd get on that shit.

Disclaimer: I've never rented an apartment or been in Ann Arbor, so there's an excellent change I have no idea what I'm talking about. But, I read the Boston LJ comm, and every now and again someone shows up basically saying, "I'm moving to Boston, here is my budget and what I'm looking for, what areas of the city/companies are good/bad/etc, what should my timeline look lie, etc." So that might be another place to try, if there's a good local LJ comm.

During July you're more likely to have to need to find a sublease which means you're going to be leasing from someone who is leasing off of the property owner. It's a bit cheaper than finding a place right away which probably will be a good thing because you're going to need to find the time to get a proper place to live. I'd start looking at Craigslist or I can look out for places that are subleasing in the spring/summer and report back to you. However, as others have already said, if you can find a long-term place, get on that as quickly as you can.

The property owners at my apartment my third year allowed two parking spots per apartment for free. However, the ceiling in the parking structure was too low for tow trucks to come in so it was common to have people who didn't live in the complex park their cars in these spots. Campus Realty (the company I lease from now) is pretty strict on parking and I think parking perments are like $500 per car for a year-ish lease. So if you want a car here, you have to make sure you can afford it.

The bus routes here are easy to remember. Depending on the time of day, a bus will be at every stop every ten-ish minutes or every thirty-ish minutes. For example, one bus route goes all the way own to State Street (the street where the Michigan Union is located) to Briarwood Mall and the Washtenaw route goes into Ypsilanti, where Eastern Michigan University is. Also, as long as you have your MCard, traveling by bus is free.

There's some other stuff I could say but my mind is kind of frazzled at the moment. I hope this is a good start though. ^_^

It would be great if you let me know of any subleasing possibilities you might hear of. I've only found a couple so far on Craigslist but I'll keep looking.

I'm confused about the parking - you said it was two spots for free, but there's a $500 charge per car?

Thanks for the advice, I'm sure I'll keep coming back to you with more and more questions :)

People tend to post fliers in restrooms and dorms or so it seems.

The place I rented from two years ago had two free parking spots. The place I live in now you have to pay $500-ish for a space. Sorry for the confusion.

No problem.

I agree with Leah. If you already know when some are going to be available, I would definitely go ahead and start looking. Often it's easier to look closer to when you're going to move (when I moved to DC, I actually rented an apartment sight unseen - it worked out, but it's nerve wracking and I definitely don't recommend it), but if you can find some know where people are moving out when you need to be moving in, then I think putting some feelers out would definitely be helpful.

If Ann Arbor is a student town, it's possible that a lot of leases will start and end at the end of the academic year? I'd say to start by looking up a few estate agents in the area (that might be Britspeak... according to Wikipedia the US equivalent is "real estate broker". You learn something new every click :D) and basically asking them what the set-up is - like how many students that agency deals with, when the leases generally begin, when the properties come on the market... That sort of thing.

I found my flat basically by looking in the windows of the agencies to see what was the price range, finding ones that suited me and the girl I'm going to live with, and, basically, going in, talking to the agent and then having a look around the property.

It's not too scary! I had no experience finding my own place either before this February, and I sorted my flat out in the space of about two weeks after we looked at the one we eventually took!

I wish I knew more about Ann Arbor, but I just kinda drive to my parking spot and then walk into my building and never deal with the surroundings. *is lame*

However, I'd suggest getting in touch with some of the other grad students in the chem dept. I'm sure the they have a chemgrad email list that you could post to.

YAY! A2!

Apartment searching! Help!

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