Practically everyone has to move on 1 July (also Canada Day), because that’s when their leases expire. The more cynical among the federalist crowd believe that this is to dampen the Canada Day festivities.
We use a different numbering system to describe apartments which as far as I know is unique to Montreal: a 1 1/2 is an apartment which is one room plus bath (like mine), 2 1/2 is two rooms (usually bedroom and kitchen), and bath; etc. What system does your city use?
(1) Apartments are usually described as “2DK” (which, if I remember correctly, would mean 2 rooms plus a dining room/kitchen), “1LDK” (1 room plus a living-dining room/kitchen??), “3K” and so on.
(2) Room sizes are described in terms of the number of tatami mats there are (or would be, if the rooms have carpet or some other kind of flooring). Hence, you have 6-mat rooms, 4.5-mat rooms, etc.
(3) On top of paying a deposit of (typically) 2 months’ rent when you sign the rental contract, you also have to fork over non-refundable “key money” equivalent to 1-2 months’ rent. Not to mention the first month’s rent and another month’s worth for the real-estate company.
(4) Because of (3), you hope to god that you don’t have to move again in the near future.
Well, people start looking for their next apartment or house reeeeeeeeally early here. As in, we move in September 1, and by November our landlord wants to know our plans for next year and can he start bringing people through to view the house if we’re not staying? That’s for places close to campus (we’re in a college town).
This ain’t a renting thing, but the other odd thing is that the housing market is really hot right now and has been for about five years. You pretty much have to be ready to bid on a house within five minutes of walking through it. I know that’s true some other places, too, it just amazes me to no end.
Wells Fargo currently has some egg on their face because of their (former) affiliation with Homefair.com.
This article will give the details of a lawsuit filed by ACORN - against Wells Fargo.
Apparently Homefair’s database contains editorial content that is not necessarily kosher, especially when you are in so heavily regulated an industry as money-lending.
For example, their database might tell you that people in a particular neighborhood “like to eat take-out chicken.” Or it is a high crime area with lots of wine-cooler drinkers.
I can’t comment on the quality of their statistical data, but they definitely show some editorial problems.