general

(and far beyond it)

Looking at apartments for september

I'm glad you're not just renting sight unseen

Good choice

I have a handful of viewing apointments booked, will probably end up just walking into places that have "for lease" while I am there too

but yeah, signing a 12 month lease without looking is insane

Keep us updated what weird non-smooth food you eat while you're traveling

It will be normal foods

Aparently kingston is fucked for housing and everything that is not a cockroach infested shithole is very expensive

my funding will cover something decent, but it sucks

idk if you need this advice Pika (and yes it is not a renters market rn)

but whatever you do, make sure you negotiate

my rent went up 20% for next term

super strict leasing companies, maybe have less leverage, but most people (especially if they own more units in the same building) will want renters like you, and if they think giving you a discount will get their unit filled 1-2 months earlier than it otherwise would have, they'll do it

I'll do what I can but a place is a place. The cattle of a specific breed as Josh would refer to them all rush to get apartments in august last minute, so if I do not get something now I will be competing with the hoard of undergrad students. My only upside is I am looking at 1 bedroom apartments, most undergrads will either be doing room rentals/bacholers, or multi bedroom with room mates.

people look for apartments in like march where I am

People do that too, but not all people

smart people look earlier than last minute

do you know what to lookfor to identify roaches/bedbugs/mold Pika?

No I should look that up

you can just google it, but actually know the signs

yeah

there's single bedroom apartments as well as studio apartments

and you don't have to be super anal, most buildings have had *some* form of water damage at some point

that's not that weird

but when you see signs of active issues, that's what to be wary of

roaches is easy

its just black dots

proximity to train tracks/flight paths (occasional noise) are easy ways to save money, high traffic areas and bad parking as well tend to reduce cost

In kingston, basically everything is the main road with bus paths, it is primarily an old university town

yeah, ig it depends how big your search radius is

if there's 1-2 main roads all the apartments are on

I can't drive, so <40 minutes by bus is my radius lol

then I guess it maters less

I liked living within walking distance of campus

now I am within biking distance instead

All the walking distance apartments are slumtowers

apparently

I am going to end up 20-30 by bus, which is acceptable to me

I did do some prelim research of students complaining about which buildings were bad

also, imo write-off almost anything undergrad students say

also fair, I only wrote off ones where they had very exact complaints (there are cockroaches). I did not care about "management is not responsive" as much

that's less of a hard and fast rule, but I think you get a LOT of people who have never lived away from home before, and they project all of their shit onto their apartment/dorm/roomate

Pay attention to washer/dryer access

at least, when I was looking for undergrad housing, there were a lot of "don't live here" warnings for completely fine places

^^

yeah what Polu said

Washer/dryer access is very very important

None of the places I am doing have in suite laundry, I will check dishwasher though

RIP

all of the buildings have in building laundry

have you looked at townhouse rentals at all?

yeah, then check math on # of machines per apartments/floors and if they're decent machines

in suite laundry places were all 2300-2500 no utilities included

townhouse rentals are all room rentals, which I am not doing

renting in Canada is "company buys everything up then rents out a room for 1200 a month"

your housing options sound way more expensive than mine ever were

Canada is fucked

I am probably going to end up spending 1800 CAD, and it will cover water and maybe heat but not electricity

that is the average of all the places I was seeing

Yeah, so I looked into this Pika because DC in one of the worst housing areas in the US (top5)

every major Canada metro area is magnitudes worse

Yeah, no, Canada is uniquely fucked in a way I think a lot of you guys do not appreciate unless you've actually looked into it

and your reqs to rent anything, are R E T A R D E D

the fact you have to go through a background check, and get letters of reccomendation

for shitty studio apartments

that's more than what I pay for my 2 bedroom (duplex) house rental + water

Welcome to Canada leg

2 bedroom duplex house rental is probably like 2700-3000 CAD minimum

and that's after my 20% increase

buildings older than 5 years have a 5%/year rent increase cap, doug ford removed it so any building built in the last 5 years (the nice ones) have no cap

I mean, I pay more for the streamer house, but loan rates are bad rn

You also got a massive house

when they come down and I refinance, I'll be less broke

I am sure you'd pay less if you got a shitty shack somewhere

my nice college apartments were $600 and then $800, all utilities included, with appliances

you also have a full time salary though spooky

well, double that, because they were 2BRs and I had a roomate

I have 25200 CAD/year to work with after I subtract tutition costs

I was paying under $900 living alone in undergrad