Argh! As some of you area Dopers know, PLD and I are planning to move closer to the District and one or the other of our offices when our lease down here is up (we took the only apartment available on short notice when we moved from Cleveland last summer). Having heard (and partially experience the horror of apartment shopping in the DC Metro area, we have started early, and I had diligently gone through the 900-page Apartment Shoppers Guide and flagged all the possible apartments.
Today, I registered at the apartmentguide.com website (since it said that by registering you could save your search for later), and then spent 3 hours today pulling all of them up, making notes in the book and adding the ones that seemed to have good potential into the “shopping cart” to compare when I was done. I finally finished checking them all (yes, I know quite anal, but we’re trying to be very methodic and practical since we have more time to look than we did when we moved down here).
I hit the “Shop and Compare” button which indicates it will allow you to save your search. Now, I’d argue I’m a pretty intelligent person, but I couldn’t figure out exactly how to save it, so I selected one of the options thinking I’d find “Help.” It showed the AG.com site map–no help there. I hit the back button thinking I’d get my full shopping cart back with its 25 or 30 selections that I had wanted to examine. Instead of actually going back to that page, I got the standard opening page for “Shop and Compare” telling you how to search and “add to cart” for later. No matter what I clicked, it was gone–all of them were gone.
Now I’m having a one person pity party. I’m not ticked enough to start a pit thread (what and blemish my record at never starting one?) so I’m just sitting here and pouting…hoping I can remember enough from the notes I wrote to recreate a potential list of places in NVA and the District to consider…
I expect this thread to drop like a stone, but just hadda get it out.
DC real-estate is a pain in the ass. Last year, I went homeless for a month. Next month, I’m signing up for all the waiting lists out there just in case I have to ditch the Den of Iniquity. The waiting list is often six months or more.
I may, however, be in a position to help you. My property manager may be typical in that she rarely responds to unsolicited requests any longer, preferring to take recommendations from her current tenants and waiting lists be damned. The market is that tight. I live in the last vestige of ghetto in Rosslyn, but it’s less than five minutes from the Orange/Blue lines and I eat like a freaking king when I remember that humans need food. They have other equally attractive properties that they manage. I don’t get kick-backs, unfortunately.
So fire me an e-mail (now enabled in my profile), give me the story, and I’ll pass along the recommendation as if I’ve known you since we were kids. Make sure to name me in the subject so I don’t ditch your message as spam. It might help.
OK, a house may be out of range, especially if you want to be closer in, but seriously, what’s the condo market look like? And the Fed’s cut interest rates another half-point, and might cut rates still more before your lease runs out. It looks like a good time for mortgage shopping.
Two incomes, no kids, ya need a tax deduction, I’m tellin’ ya.
At the urging of a fellow doper, I wandered over to CoolBoards.com. I wrote a nice article with some links in it, previewed it and clicked on the link to test it.
Perfect, the link clicked through to the right URL. Now, close the window and get back to my preview…
[John Belushi]
BUT NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
[/John Belushi]
I get the “This Page Has Expired” message. Ok, so my fault, next time I’ll just go back with the browser. I rewrite the page and re-establish the links, preview the page, click through the link, Bingo, the link works, click the “back” button and guess what?
I get the “This Page Has Expired” message again. (GRRRRR!)
Guess I won’t be spending too much time over at CoolBoards.com. What a bunch of flaming jerks, wasting my time like that!
Let’s just say that $40,000 in student loan debt, no significant liquid savings, and a shitty credit record make this not even a fantasy option, let alone a real one. Not going to happen, period.
Sorry, we don’t do that. And like I said, I wasn’t so pissed as I was frustrated. But thanks, Chief, for your sympathy?
RTF asked about home buying…
For me, (all financial circumstances being perfect) its also a matter of not knowing where in the DC-Metro area we’d like to settle that permanently. Besides, yard work and fixing stuff that breaks without calling maintenance is no fun, we learned that when we rented houses from schmucks in Cleveland.
