bluejayk wrote:I'd be interested in hearing about your experience finding a place last minute. How did you find the place? Thanks, you've been really helpful in this thread.
My last year at undergrad, I subleased a place from someone who dropped out of school last minute, I got a fantastic discount. Hopefully something like that might be possible, because I won't be able to commit until after the rush for apartments is over.
jawsthegreat wrote:Oh ok, how nice is Arlington Court compared to Jeffersonian? How do you go about getting one if it is individually owned?
I didn't find it last minute, I just didn't move in until then. I found it in late March or early April, I forget which, but somewhere around there. The lease I signed just happened to be starting August 1. (The prior tenant ended up needing extra time to move out, so I ended up pushing back my move-in date to August 8, which actually worked out better for me.)
The unit I'm in was listed on Craigslist by the owner. I wasn't the first person to respond, but everyone else who responded wanted to look at it. I was like, "What does it take to rent it?", and she kept being like, "Well, you can come look at it before someone else does if you want," and I was like, "No, you don't understand, I don't want to look at it, I want to rent it right now." If I had waited at all I knew someone else would rent it, so I just tried to go ahead and rent it over the phone.
That's what finding a place close to campus is like, seriously. It
will go quick, and to the person with the biggest balls. If you see it, rent it. You're paying for the location, basically; otherwise, it's a fairly typical apartment. That's going to be pretty typical for any unit around here, the thing that gives them special value is the location.
This unit is fairly nice. It's old, and the owner hasn't put much money into modernizing it, so it's got some quirks. Different units will have different amenities depending on what the owner's done with it. For example, it has an actual literal
fuse box instead of a circuit breaker box. You have the old 1950s style circular fuses, if one blows you have to unscrew it and screw a new one in. On the other hand, I have a sliding door on the bath/shower that the owner had put in at some point, and I like that over a shower curtain immensely.
It's not what I'd call small, but the layout is quirky. There's no separate kitchen, there's a decent-sized living room/kitchen with the kitchen basically being one wall/side of the living room. It has a nice large bathroom, which i like, and I mentioned the shower/bathtub with sliding door (not all condos will have the sliding doors, depends on the owner). The bedroom is big enough for my queen-size bed (I like my sleep, if my username didn't tell you that).
If you're from NYC, my friend who lives there thinks this place is
massive. I'm from Texas and think it's ordinary, nothing impressive in terms of size.
Jeffersonian units are larger, I think. They have some units that are 1BR+den, and I was actually just in a classmate's unit today, and those units are just
huge. They're literally the same floorplan as the 2BR units, just without the second bedroom. Also, since Jeffersonian is an apartment complex with a central manager, you have much better odds of getting a unit you want there since you're not having to track down different owners. As has been said on here, though, those go fast once they open up for applications on Jan. 1, so you'd better get on it if you want to live there.
I'm glad I'm able to be of help. I figure anyone wanting to come here could use good information, and I have it, so... why not?
