When I Chose My Apartment, Money Was Just One Concern
Sheltering at home would have looked a lot different for me at almost any other point in my life. I have a whole new level of gratitude for moving to my own apartment when I did; I can fully enjoy the peace of it now. Here’s my story on how I got the best apartment for my needs with an ever-shrinking price tag on it.
It’s March 2018. I had started a new job a month earlier that paid me sixty stacks a year (!!!) and decided to finally go for a new apartment. One I wouldn’t share with anyone else. Living alone for the FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE! So I wanted as great of an apartment as possible, but it had to be for the right price. Any apartment money concern would have soured my living there.
I was sure to dramatically up my spending in the rent category. There really was no beating the $600 I paid for an all-utilities-included abode. Since Boston is one of the most expensive places to live in the country, there’s a high demand for anything remotely reasonable. Anyone looking for deals is sure to have their work cut out for them.
My Criteria
Specifically, I was looking for a two-bed apartment in a quiet area of town. Living alone, having space for my brother/guests, and a peaceful neighborhood were all more important to me than saving money. Being financially stable wouldn’t mean anything if it left me in yet another dismal home situation. Having my own place excited me, and I was no longer willing to live with strangers.
Thanks to my previous job at a real estate firm, I was more prepared for the rental market than most. Because of that I could prepare a lot more effectively and didn’t strictly need a realtor to help me in the search. Had I used one, I would’ve had to fork over almost $2,000 in fees for their services. As I’m sure you know, that’s not how Darcy Guac rolls.
I knew how much I could expect to pay; more importantly, what the price point is for a screaming good deal. At the time I knew anything below $1,800 for a two-bed apartment was the cheapest you could go for my area. And that was if you could find a place to live without something crazy wrong with it, like terrible insulation or demonic ghosts.
But I wanted lower, and I also wasn’t willing to become another horror movie statistic to get it.
My Tools
After months of looking at listings for work, I knew I could spot a good deal when I saw one. This was paramount to jumping on a great living arrangement, especially because they go fast. Overpriced rentals might sit for a while on the market, but underpriced ones might last for a couple of hours. In tight rental markets, speed is of the essence and I had to adapt to that reality.
I also knew not to narrow my search to any one platform (Craigslist, Apartments.com, Trulia, etc). Landlords not using an agent will likely only post to one platform and call it a day, so only using one meant potentially missing out. As a result I looked at all of these platforms plus I think two others, one of which being Zillow. While they all have different interfaces, they’re pretty easy to navigate if you specify what types of apartments you’re looking for.
The filters make it easy-peasy to look for a certain number of bedrooms in your particular price range. I looked daily to make sure I wouldn’t miss a new one and could jump on it ASAP. I ignored any listings without photos, figuring anyone who didn’t bother to post images were either scammers or had some horror show of an apartment.
But keep in mind, those images won’t tell you the full story.
Living in the area I was looking also made it infinitely easy to see these potential homes in person. The only time you should get a rental agent is if you’re, for some reason, unable to see these places in person before signing the lease, which I only ever saw of people moving here on short notice from hundreds of miles away. Pictures give you an idea of what it looks like, but nothing of what the layout, neighbors, or traffic might look like. Those pictures also might not include some less-than-impressive aspects of the apartment, like a gross shower or broken-down appliances. This saved my butt when finding out some picture-perfect places were actually not somewhere I want to stay.
One of the weirdest had the two bedrooms on top of each other, with the only way up to the second bedroom was via staircase from the first. I made a shitty MS Paint drawing to show you how weird the layout of that apartment was:
Yeah, that’s gonna be a no from me.
Making My Own Luck
If I spent longer than a month looking at apartments, I’m positive I’d have more horror stories to share with you all. At the time, I thought that would be a given: I gave myself a five month timeline to look at apartments and find a hidden gem, figuring it’d take that long for something to pop up. To my surprise, I ended up finding that gem in Month Numero Uno. I tend to prep for the worst-case scenario instead of the best so this threw me for a hot second. BUT NOT FOR LONG!
This apartment was in that quiet neighborhood I wanted and near some adorable mom-and-pop shops. This not only includes bakeries run by the gods of culinary perfection, but also my favorite thrift store! It’s nearby several bus routes that go all over the place, which made downtown Boston, Cambridge, and other Boston neighborhoods just a bus ride away. It has a layout a sane person designed! It’s got heating and AC! Best of all, it’s got laundry machines AND a dishwasher!!
And all of that was for $1,700 a month, much less than the average two-bed rent of $2,500.
When my now-landlord was showing me the apartment I was internally screaming with joy. At the end of the we chitchatted about the apartment and how her search for tenants was going. To the last point she shrugged. “It didn’t start off that great. The couple that looked at this before you didn’t want to move in.”
After my shocked response to that, she explained what had taken place. Before I showed up to stake my claim, another couple had actually found it first. They declined to jump on it because, for that $1,700 price, they were looking for a 2 bed with a dining room as well.
WHAT!!
Just for clarification: apartments in Boston will not come with a dining room for less than $2,000. You’re looking at rent closer to $3,000 if you want that.
That was a perfect example of luck being where opportunity meets preparation. That couple had more opportunity than I did because they got there first, but their lack of preparation (i.e. knowing how much you need to pay to get a 2 bed PLUS a separate living and dining space) meant they, in the end, were NOT lucky. I don’t know if they were out-of-towners unfamiliar with the area or attempting some kind of weird psychological trick to try and get the price down.
I also don’t care. Their loss, in this scenario, was my gain, as I didn’t even leave the apartment showing before telling my landlord I wanted it. Once the background checks cleared and the bank checks were written, I moved out of my old apartment and stepped into the new.
Today
Now let’s fast forward to 2020. I have been happily settled here for a couple of years and paid next to nothing for all its comforts and joys. (And still with not one apartment money concern or regret!) Then the 21st century plague struck, requiring us to stay at home to both slow the pathogen spread and protect our own health. And honestly, my apartment is the best place to pass the time. I’ve been grateful since 2018 that I decided to actually move out on my own, and staying here during the pandemic heavily reaffirms that decision. Choosing this apartment was one of the best decisions of my life. It’s right up where with my decision to study abroad (AMAZING) and my decision to go into temping.
Yeah, I could’ve found a much smaller apartment for something in the $1,200-$1,400 range. I could’ve also halved my rental costs by having a roommate in that other bedroom. But the climb to riches is NOT supposed to be the sole pursuit. Money is only a tool, the means to your overarching goals and dreams. Having a happy home I could make my own has always been a top priority of mine, and there was not enough upside to waiting longer for it.
What was it like for you to find your own place to live? Did you have funky stories like mine or know people like that unlucky couple?