Wednesday, July 18, 2007 5:48 PM

On the Prowl: Apartment Hunting

Ever find yourself in the middle of a project and think to yourself, “How am I ever going to actually get this done?” Well, I’ve hit that wall this past week in my New York City apartment search.

The beginning of the search can be described simply as naïve optimism. You know the feeling, I focused on the vintage black and white photos I’d be hanging on my freshly painted walls, cute coffee table books, and having an excuse to buy new kitchen gear (a personal obsession of mine).  What I didn’t think about was the cold, hard reality of the search.

So far I’ve seen four actual apartments, met with five brokers, and sifted through hundreds of listings online. I’ve come to learn that “cozy” or “cute” means small and that “charming” means old. I’ve learned that two bedrooms may mean one bedroom and what can only be described as a large closet.

There’s a reason it’s called apartment hunting. It takes great patience and organization to muddle through all those listings, sometimes sketchy realtors and brokers, not to mention simply finding time in your already busy schedule to go look at the spaces.

I know there’s an apartment out there with a kitchen just waiting for my purple kitchen aid stand mixer to grace its counter; I just hope I find it sooner, rather than later.

Are any of you currently home-hunting? What kind of obstacles are you coming across and how are you dealing with them?

Posted by Nest Caitlin
Filed under:

Comments

re: On the Prowl: Apartment Hunting

The market is pretty dismal for sellers in Michigan, especially in Metro Detroit.  Somtimes people can't give them away!  Every time someone hears we are looking for a house, they chime in, "It's a buyer's market, you know."  Well, yes it is but we've put in offers on three houses thus far and I've learned people are just plain crazy-kookamunga when it comes to their properties.

We've stubled onto several different types of sellers: emotional equity sellers ("But, but, but... I raised my KIDS there!"), debt-up-to-eyeballs sellers ("No, I listed it at that price because that's what I owe and I don't have any savings so I have no choice but to sell it at that price and only that price!"), pride sellers ("I bought this at the height of the market in 2001/2002 and improved so many things, so I HAVE to get my money back, even though it wouldn't appraise that high.  I did such an awesome job."), and most unfortunately desperate sellers ("Please, dear God, buy my house even though it's run down so I can avoid foreclosure and/or move to the new house that I bought before I realized I can't pay two mortgages.")  There are also a lot of straight up auction properties, but we haven't even bothered with them.

Thus far we have offered on properties with a emotional equity seller, a pride seller, and one seller that just happened to get a better competing bid (so we can't fault them for that).  I am [points to eyes bearing a steely grin] up to here with people that have sticks up their butts or refuse to get real.  One of these days we'll find a house.  Until then, yeah, we're avoiding "quaint, charming, starter house, lots of character" and all of the other adjectives that spell: MONEY PIT.

Good luck with your hunt!

Posted by third_place    Wednesday, July 18, 2007 2:11 PM


Anonymous comments are disabled