Apartment Hunting in the 21st Century

Enough of you have inquired about my apartment hunt that I thought I’d make it easy and inform everyone all at once. Needles and pins anyone? That’s how it’s felt the past several weeks since our buyer first accepted our counter-offer and we signed the purchase agreement. The agreement states that I have until August 1^st to vacate, which was considered generous at the time but that of course assumed we’d have some finality within a week or two. I was hoping I’d have two full months to wrap things up. As things are going, it looks like that’s going to be more like five weeks. I was supposed to have the answer last week, now being told maybe next week. The good news: both the roofing inspector and asbestos inspector came by today and found no serious problems (or so they told me, but I’m not the guy they work for.)   But it’s not done until it’s done. There is so much that I cannot proceed with until we know the deal is done. One of those things is getting my new place.


I have begun the process though, and just hope that I don’t find the ideal place only to lose it because I can’t commit immediately not knowing whether the house is really sold. But looking for a place to rent for the next year or two until I finish my studies at Oakland University and have settled in my new career (and will then buy a house) is certainly different than it has been before in my life.

The last time I went apartment hunting was in 1999. I was on my final "Loopholes" excursion in Hollywood, on only my third visit back to L.A. since leaving in ’89 and there were horror stories galore of how hard it was to find a place to live. I’d heard people tell me it had taken them a year or two to find a decent place to rent. That was certainly different from the Los Angeles I left. In 13 years, I had been in 7 domiciles and in every case, it took me only two or three days to find the place. In the case of three of those rentals, it took only a few hours. So, on my final afternoon in Hollywood back in July 1999, I did a little experiment to see if there was any truth to these horror stories. I was staying in a Motel 6 right in downtown Hollywood, a prime and expensive rental area. I spent three hours walking around a six block radius from the hotel, simply doing a quick survey of apartment buildings in the immediate vicinity. I must have passed 60 complexes in that time, maybe 8 of them had "Vacancy" signs. For half of those, I could not summon a manager. But for the other half a manager let me in, showed me perfectly acceptable units that averaged $700 and into which I could move in that day if I so chose. I would likely have had the same experience at the other four if a manager had been in at the time.

So it had taken me three hours to find four perfectly acceptable apartments, all in roughly a quarter-mile square area of some of the most in-demand rental properties in L.A. And since I had been paying $600/month in Orange County (a considerably lower rent district) ten years earlier, it appeared rents had not increased at all in my absence. So I once again proved that it is the exceptional case where you can actually believe a rumor.

That’s the way it had been in the 20^th century. Apartment hunting was easy. You either drove around looking for Vacancy signs until you found a building you liked, or you got the weekly circular called "The Recycler" and found your rental there. When I first arrived in 1977, I grabbed The Recycler right at the bus station and it took me three hours to find and rent the house in Hollywood where I would live for the next five years.

Last week, when I started my first search since moving back to Michigan, I thought it would be much the same. But I found a few changes had taken place. At least in this area, apartment buildings don’t hang out Vacancy signs, and they don’t advertise themselves either. I had a difficult time even figuring out where they were. I do have at least an initial goal of staying close right out the gate (either Keego or Sylvan so I can stay on the Cable Commission) and not only did not know where they were but had no resource that would tell me where they were. After about two hours of driving around Keego and Sylvan to no avail, I realized that in the 21^st century now, I have to do my research on the Internet. So I spent a few hours on a number of real estate web sites. What a collossal jumble of misinformation! I discovered that it’s not possible to do a search on "Keego Harbor rentals" and get any results that are actually Keego Harbor. All the web sites are designed to provide listings for "AnyTown USA and VICINITY." The problem I found was that the vicinity was a pretty widely cast net, providing hundreds of listings of which less than 1% were actually in Keego, that is if they even bothered telling you the exact location at all.

So I made a list of a number of places. There is Bloomfield on The Green just off Orchard Lake near Middlebelt. Nice place but no vacancies. There is a very nice unit (which I can’t see for another ten days or so) that will be available July 1^st but it’s in West Bloomfield, not Sylvan. Pine Lake Manor, super convenient as it’s right across the street from Abbott Middle School (1/4 mile away) also has no vacancies, though I’m on a list. But word on the street is that it’s a low grade class of people who live there, in other words lots of noise. The rentals there are cheap so I guess that explains that. There is also Bloomfield On the Lakes (next to Santia's), but also no vacancies. And finally the Cass Lake Front apartments. It’s one short block from the lake which should mean it’s attractive, but the fact that rents start at a mere $550 should have told me that it’s pretty much a dump. Doesn’t matter, no vacancies, but at least from the outside, it does look like a dump.

So that’s how the week went, having a hard time finding places, even on the Internet, especially on the Internet, and most of them No Vacancy. Bloomfield On the Green is looking like the best bet. The manager says the apartment is in West Bloomfield but I question this. It’s just two blocks from La Rosa’s. That has to still be Sylvan! So I call Dave, my man on the Commission, and he calls Sylvan City Hall. (Dave feels very motivated to keep me on the Commission.) On Thursday afternoon, he sends me a communication from Sylvan City Hall. I don’t know how this works, or how it’s even possible, but it turns out that half of BOG is indeed in Sylvan and the other half in WB. What, did they have to get permits from two different municipalities in order to build this place? Did they have to purchase the land in two separate agreements? I can’t imagine how complicated that must have been.

At any rate, I phone BOG and give them the list. The unit I was on the list for is in fact in WB. But this is when things start turning around. In the past two days, two more units have become available for July 1^st, and both of them are on the Sylvan side of the line!

That began a surge of good luck. I got back on the Internet and found a house right off of Cass and Orchard. Paul and I drove over to take a look and it is a cute little place. I phoned the realtor and it is available. Then I again phoned Cass Lake Front and am now told that they expect a vacancy in the next few days. So in the space of a couple of hours yesterday afternoon, I found four places that are available. Now it’s just a question of getting in to see them.

The options are:

The house on Kenrick in Keego, 3 br, 1 ba, $1000/mo. The realtor will show me the place on Tuesday.

The apartment at Cass Lake Front, which will either be 550 or 625 depending on whether it’s one or two bedrooms. I should be able to see the available unit next week.

And the two at BOG, which is still striking me as the best bet. It’s a retirement community so it should be a quiet place to live and study for the next year or so. I also get the impression they’re considerably nicer than the other places. One is a ground floor, the other a 2^nd floor. They are $700, 900 sq ft.

Hopefully next week, I’ll be able to see these places. The obvious attraction of the house is that it will be easier to put the piano there. If I go into an apartment, I will have to invest in a digital so I can play without disturbing the neighbors. That’s not a big deal. I’ve been wanting to buy a digital as a backup for quite some time anyway.

The hitch on all this, of course, that I’ve already alluded to is that I can’t take any place until I know for sure the house is sold. Let’s hope that we finally get closure on that next week and then have even more positive news on the apartment scene. Of course, none of this matters if we don’t close. I don’t even want to think about what the next year is going to look like if this deal falls through. Fingers crossed everyone!