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Chicago joys and woes
Aug. 28th, 2013 10:29 pmIt's been an...interesting week. As is often the case in large cities, the rental market in Chicago (or at least the more desirable parts of Chicago) is hopping, with places renting in a matter of days or sometimes even hours. Needless to say, this has made finding a place from a distance a bit tricky, as most of the folks I've contacted saying "Hey, can we see this place over Labor Day weekend when we're in town?" have responded with some variant on "Talk to me when you get here and I'll tell you if it's still available."
After much wrangling, hair-pulling, and bragging about how Brian and I are fantastic tenants, I'd managed to arrange a few showings, one at a place I was fairly sure wasn't going to work out (the owner is trying to sell the place and wants a 60-day notice-to-vacate clause in the lease, but the place is gorgeous enough to be worth looking at anyway), one at a place that may or may not work depending on a number of factors, and one at a place up in Edgewater (a bit far north, but supposedly a quiet neighborly sort of area with a nice mix of ethnicities) that I was at least moderately hopeful about. But there was this one place I was really bummed about - a condo right on the border between Andersonville/Uptown (Uptown's known for being a bit sketchy in places, but this spot was a few streets up from the notorious part). I couldn't even say why, but when I saw the pictures (all four of them - there weren't even any shots of any part of the place aside from the kitchen and the patio), it was like it clicked - this was the one we wanted. So I immediately called and emailed the landlord to ask for a showing.
Somewhat unsurprisingly, I got back the by-now-expected "Sorry, I've already had two applications, but I'll let you know if they fall through." And I found myself hoping they would, despite the fact that I didn't know if (as Brian put it) "the rest of the place is covered in poop." Sure, the kitchen looked really great - it had a built-in wine rack! - and it was a great combination of features with everything we could reasonably want in our price range, but it wasn't like there weren't other options nearly as good. So I tried to let it go, and mostly managed, despite dreaming that night that we'd met the folks who were living there and were trying to be friends but couldn't because I was too jealous of their condo.
And then this afternoon I get an email: "Well, I wasn't expecting this, but both my applications fell through. Are you still interested?"
I'm fairly certain the sound I made was only audible to the cats.
I'm trying not to get my hopes too far up, just in case the landlord flakes out and rents it out from under us, or (as Brian fears) the rest of the place is painted poop-brown - or worse, painted in actual poop. But, unsuperstitious as I am, it's hard not to take the other applications falling through as a sign. If nothing else, it's a sign the owner's looking for a good tenant (rather than just trying to rent it as quickly as possible), and we pretty well have that locked down. (I'm amassing a folder with our credit reports and references and Brian's job offer letter to take with us, as proof.) I just really, really hope the rest of the place (or, worse, the landlord) doesn't turn out to be a letdown, somehow.
T minus 1.5 days until we leave for the reconnaissance trip, and I'm finally excited about it (as opposed to terrified that we won't be able to find anything). Hopefully we'll like Chicago as much as literally all our friends think we will. Expect pictures of us at The Bean on Facebook!
After much wrangling, hair-pulling, and bragging about how Brian and I are fantastic tenants, I'd managed to arrange a few showings, one at a place I was fairly sure wasn't going to work out (the owner is trying to sell the place and wants a 60-day notice-to-vacate clause in the lease, but the place is gorgeous enough to be worth looking at anyway), one at a place that may or may not work depending on a number of factors, and one at a place up in Edgewater (a bit far north, but supposedly a quiet neighborly sort of area with a nice mix of ethnicities) that I was at least moderately hopeful about. But there was this one place I was really bummed about - a condo right on the border between Andersonville/Uptown (Uptown's known for being a bit sketchy in places, but this spot was a few streets up from the notorious part). I couldn't even say why, but when I saw the pictures (all four of them - there weren't even any shots of any part of the place aside from the kitchen and the patio), it was like it clicked - this was the one we wanted. So I immediately called and emailed the landlord to ask for a showing.
Somewhat unsurprisingly, I got back the by-now-expected "Sorry, I've already had two applications, but I'll let you know if they fall through." And I found myself hoping they would, despite the fact that I didn't know if (as Brian put it) "the rest of the place is covered in poop." Sure, the kitchen looked really great - it had a built-in wine rack! - and it was a great combination of features with everything we could reasonably want in our price range, but it wasn't like there weren't other options nearly as good. So I tried to let it go, and mostly managed, despite dreaming that night that we'd met the folks who were living there and were trying to be friends but couldn't because I was too jealous of their condo.
And then this afternoon I get an email: "Well, I wasn't expecting this, but both my applications fell through. Are you still interested?"
I'm fairly certain the sound I made was only audible to the cats.
I'm trying not to get my hopes too far up, just in case the landlord flakes out and rents it out from under us, or (as Brian fears) the rest of the place is painted poop-brown - or worse, painted in actual poop. But, unsuperstitious as I am, it's hard not to take the other applications falling through as a sign. If nothing else, it's a sign the owner's looking for a good tenant (rather than just trying to rent it as quickly as possible), and we pretty well have that locked down. (I'm amassing a folder with our credit reports and references and Brian's job offer letter to take with us, as proof.) I just really, really hope the rest of the place (or, worse, the landlord) doesn't turn out to be a letdown, somehow.
T minus 1.5 days until we leave for the reconnaissance trip, and I'm finally excited about it (as opposed to terrified that we won't be able to find anything). Hopefully we'll like Chicago as much as literally all our friends think we will. Expect pictures of us at The Bean on Facebook!
