posted 09-29-2006 09:41 PM            

---

i had an idea for a threadstarter- we could as single parents share helpful, humorous or horror stories of apartment renting, roomate experiences. I think it could be a lift some of us need, and also offer help from our past experiences.

Any takers??

posted 09-29-2006 09:54 PM            

---

it might be nice also to include any tips about having your own place-- anything from what to look for in an apartment or roommate, (or house if your so blessed!), what to avoid, what worked for you.

personally i prefer apartments on the second floor, I think it may be less noisy especially if it's a corner unit so you only have neighbors on one side of you.
I dont like the setup with the pool in the middle of the building, feels too much like a college coed situation or a motel.
I think checking out an apartment more than once- see it in the morning, then early afternoon and around 9 pm to get a true idea of what the activity and noise level is like. First time apartment lookers tend to just go in the morning when of course it would be quiet. One apartment i was in at one point I found out the noise on weekends, sometimes was like a rowdy fraternity.
Some people dont mind, I can't stand that at night and want a quiet family atmosphere, not people partying it up like it's a frat house.

i heard also it can be better to rent from a small privately owned building, where the owner or manager lives on site, than in a large building owned by corporation, because a private owner can be as flexible as he wants to be (for example about allowing a small pet, or letting you pay rent late once in a great while, where a corporate owned building may not have any heart about thosethings)

I have a short roommate story-- this person had really bad communication, she would say things like 'oh, use that anytime' then I would use it once or twice, and she would call me really irritated saying 'oh...why did you use that?' or she would say help yourself to the leftovers, and when we did so again, i'd get a call asking 'umm, did you eat that leftover?' i found out later from a friend she had trouble communicating. That kind of person is really hard to deal with, because you never know what you'll get-- if they tell you help yourself, and you do, then they complain, well...how can you ever know what to do or not do? That was a short lived arrangement...ironically near the end of us living together she said why dont you stay til March, then around mid January she said 'oh, you're STILL living here?" anyways, not sure how to get around that except try to find someone who communicates honestly and openly, and says what they mean.

posted 09-30-2006 12:05 PM         

---

oh the horror! I always rent on the first floor, Lex has the tendency to stomp to get my attention (vibration, its a deaf thing) so i didn't want to be a bad neighbor, of course my last apartment, the woman upstairs had a 12 year old, 3 year old and her college age daughter living there, it got so bad things started falling off the walls I can't tell you how many times I comlained as did the people around me. I was so happy to finally leave.

When I first moved to Sac, I had the cutest littel two bed place, with my own backyard, it was a 6 plex. three little sets of duplexes, in a gated area, we had grape vines, fruit trees. The owner was really swet, but wouldn't fix anything, the carpet was like 30 years old and no padding under it, needed paint, lino. We had a pool and everyone got along. He was cool if you were a few days late on rent, or something. Then a freidn was getting evicted, long story. So we rented a house from a friend. BAD BAD BAD IDEA!!!! the house wasn't finished when we moved in. It was nice inside, but windows didn't have the trim around the inside, si it was exposed wood. not all the outlets had covers yet. no closet doors, chipped tiles, dishwasher barely worked, oven was so old you could no longer read what temp you where cooking at. My room was a little bigger so I ended up paying 700 while she paid 500. She left her 4 year old at home for me to watch without asking, I somehow bought all the food, the house was older so our utilities where really high. Then she met a guy online and spent the weekend with him the first time they met. I had just been in a car accident and could barely move. They showed u pat the house with his three kids and her child. left them in the living room and went to her room. they were out there throwing things, yelling and for an hour they did nothing about it. I took Lex and left. Then later she told me I was just jealous she had someone and I didn't, yeah thats the problem. Then I rented her room to psycho guy. that lasted amonth. I finally just got a smaller cheaper apartment.

All times are CT (US)