Apartment Seeking

[xela]

As some of you know, I'm moving this summer. I'd really like to find a place on the bike path, most likely near Park Street (so that on non-cycling days I'd be starting from the end of the bus line, hence able to get a seat). Which is certainly not to say I'd be averse to a place that meets the rest of my requirements somewhere else along the Minuteman.

At any rate, I plan to put a poster up in the appropriate area (almost certainly also posting its text to craigslist, sans personal info). Before I do so, I thought I'd run it by you good people. Any thoughts?

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(Note that I intend to put a footer on it saying when it was put up, and the date I plan to take it down. That sort of thing seems to me basic good citizenship when putting up private messages on public property. Which I realize makes me weird.)

Comments

[siderea]

There's no $$$ on it.

[yakshaver.livejournal.com]

That's on purpose. IME, the custom in apartment rentals is landlord states a price, tenant takes it or leaves it. Seems to me the most likely outcome of my trying to play against the grain there would be that I overpay.

[siderea]

Good luck with that.

[gigglefest.livejournal.com]

My guess is that you'd have better luck looking at Craigslist for apartments that meet your needs, rather than putting up the poster. I still use Craigslist, but I hear I'm behind the times and PadMapper is the way to go: https://www.padmapper.com/

[yakshaver.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm totally parallel-processing this. I look at craigslist on a daily basis. This is just an alternative way of looking that I imagine might have some merit. I'm nor so much imagining a landlord seeing the poster and contacting me as a tenant who's about to move out of a place they've liked that meets my criteria seeing it and feeling moved to perform a random act of kindness.

[gigglefest.livejournal.com]

That makes sense. Good luck with the search!

[remcat.livejournal.com]

Does it really work this way in Somerville -- renters advertise? I haven't rented in ages, but back in the day I seem to recall that usually landlords advertised, and renters made inquiries.

[yakshaver.livejournal.com]

Oh, this isn't remotely typical --- though you do occasionally see apartment-wanted signs on community bulletin-boards of the sorts of stores and restaurants that provide those. What I'm hoping to find is specialized enough that just following craigslist seems unlikely to work --- so I'm adding this more targeted track.

[sichling.livejournal.com]

Are you not looking for a place with a roommate? Our downstairs apartment (which Nick is living in) has an empty room - and we're building a bikeshed in our backyard...

[yakshaver.livejournal.com]

I would definitely be interested in taking a look. Sometime this weekend, maybe?

[sichling.livejournal.com]

Let me connect you up with Nick (njatlas at gmail) for scheduling.

[yakshaver.livejournal.com]

Mail sent. Thanks!

[nuclearpolymer.livejournal.com]

During my pledge class's first apartment search in 1993, we blanketed the target location (Davis Square) with posters, and also postered at Tufts and MIT. Absolutely zero responses, which surprised us. (Although we attracted enough attention during the poster mob that we did get one lead from somebody who talked to us in person.) Of course that was even back before internet apartment ads were a thing, so our only other option was the Boston Globe classified.

[pwaa.livejournal.com]

I know it's not near Park Street, but I recommend East Arlington, near Alewife. It's on the Minuteman and walkable from the T, rents are reasonable, and the neighborhood is generally quiet. We found our apartment in East Arlington (Varnum St., specifically) through a realtor who got us the inside scoop (the minimum the landlord would actually accept, rather than what was listed). We offered that and he took it, and we lived there for five years and he never raised the rent. Good luck, in any case.