Grasping at apartment straws

[badseed1980]

Hey folks, pierceheart and I have been unable to find a place to buy in a timely fashion. We need to find a place to rent for a while, starting 9/1, while we look for a place to buy. We really don't want to be stuck in a lease for a whole year. Problem is, finding sublets starting at that time and lasting for a few months is difficult, and finding places that will allow tenancy at will without the tenant having been on at least one year's lease there already is very difficult. No one needs to tell me how unlikely it is that we will find this. I am getting that impression already. However, I thought I'd throw this out there, just to see if we get lucky.

We need:

* 2 bedrooms
* unfurnished if a sublet (we need room for OUR stuff)
* close to public transportation (doesn't have to be in the Davis area though)
* available on a month-to-month basis or for maybe a six month commitment
*1500 or under

I've put in my name with one rental agency (Maven) to notify me if they get any tenancy at will places available, and suspect the boy has had to go the same route with Apartment Rental Experts today, more than likely. I keep scouring Craigslist, and have found a total of one apartment sublet that might actually meet our needs, almost.

Anyone know anything that could be helpful to us?

Comments

[fyrebloom.livejournal.com]

I had decent luck asking the owner out right if month to month was ok. Some are, some aren't but it never hurts to ask (we never used an agent though). Our last place was a monthly lease (granted it was in Haverhill but I digress) and they we ok with month to month. Also I know that our landlord said if we needed to break lease, but found someone else to rent the place he was cool with that. It's a little harder now because so many more people are renting but it's worth a shot.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking I need to ask that, BUT not state that we're looking to stay less than a year.

[fyrebloom.livejournal.com]

That's about what we did, said we were planning to stay for a year but was it ok to do a month to month. They were cool with it. Good luck finding a place. I know there are some places near me who are renting, but I don't know the lease terms.

[perseph12.livejournal.com]

I would suggest asking frommy. He just bought a house in Newton, and he is looking for tenants. I'm not sure it would work out for you, but hey, worth a shot :).

Good luck!

[frommy.livejournal.com]

Sounds like my place is a bit larger than you've got in mind, unfortunately. Otherwise it could work out well. The place is 3 BR and 1 office or 2 BR and 2 offices (it's not 4 BR since the last room has no closet). I'd be looking for $1600 for a 1 year lease or $1700 for a 6 month lease, or $1800 for a tenancy at will. If you get a tenancy at will, you will certainly pay more for what you get because you are asking the landlord to take on a whole lot more financial risk.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Good point, thanks. I'll keep that in mind when looking at places. And yeah, that's a bit more than we're looking to spend.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I don't know how close to the T they are, but we can talk to him.

[lmc00.livejournal.com]

hey, followed over from the davis sq community. i unfortunately can't help with the rental stuff, but what are you looking for in a place to buy? my husband and i live in medford, right over the somerville line, and along the 96, 94, and 80 bus lines. we love our place but are expecting a baby in feb and want to move closer to my husband's workplace. we don't have our place on the market yet (still finishing a few projects, plus we've been out of town a lot), but hope to list it in august sometime.

anyways, it'd be good to hear what you're looking for both to see if our place might be of interest to you, and for my husband and i to get a better idea of what buyers might be looking for right now in this rough market. feel free to email me lmc00@livejournal.com. good luck! :)

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

We're looking for 2+ bedrooms in a 5+ room total house. We'd really love a single family, but we are certainly open to other options. Over 1000 square feet is pretty much a necessity, and we'd need a deeded parking space. We're looking in the up to $300K range.

[lmc00.livejournal.com]

we have a condo, but it's 2BR/1BA, dining room w/built-in, living room, big kitchen, and will have a finished basement that's not included in the ~1100 sq feet GLA. one parking space and a small shared backyard too. the neighborhood is cute (danish pastry house on corner, ohhh so dangerous) and we like it a lot, but we're ready to upgrade and everything.

we are hoping to list it for more than $300k, though -- probably $310k or so. if you'd like, i'll let you know when we're having an open house, and you can drop by. probably sometime late august.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Sure, it couldn't hurt to look at an open house. :)

open house

[lmc00.livejournal.com]

hi there--

if you are still looking for a place, we are having an open house on sunday aug 24, 1-2:30pm. our condo is listed on the MLS (#70810035), plus our agent set up a website www.85winthrop.com. check it out. :)

Re: open house

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Hey, thanks for getting back to me after all this time. :) We've had a change of plans, though: the boyfriend's found out that he's likely to get deployed in the fall of '09, so we're going to delay buying a place until after he gets back. We found a nice little apartment instead, for the time being. Good luck with your sale!

[tisana.livejournal.com]

You saw this (http://community.livejournal.com/davis_square/1377788.html?style=mine#cutid1)?

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Yup, and got an appointment to view it that I have to cancel, now that we calculated the heating costs.

[tisana.livejournal.com]

Yeah...unfortunately, it will be an issue no matter where you go, now. The price of heating oil has almost doubled since this time last year. Gas prices haven't caught up, yet, but they probably will soon.
So places that have heat included are rare enough, but they tend not to be the nicer places, or tend to be apartment buildings (I don't like 'em, some do). It really narrows your choices.

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Right. Which is why we're really looking more for gas heat right now. May as well get that while it's still cheaper. Those aren't that rare, either.