Gooncave & Gardens: Moving & Apartment Living, Hunting, & Furnishing

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Gooncave & Gardens: Moving & Apartment Living, Hunting, & Furnishing

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Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

Is it possible to get someone to co-sign the lease with you?

# ¿ Jun 22, 2011 02:30

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 18:30

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

In my experience, it's definitely acceptable for a parent to put their name on the contract with you. That's what I've done before when my credit wasn't great.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2011 04:11

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

Do a lot of apartments require a rental history? I've never had to deal with that before.

# ¿ Jul 7, 2011 16:51

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

That's probably not going to be an option though. Especially in New York City with no credit history and not that much income. I'm with you about living alone, but you might have to get realistic. Have you looked into living with somebody from your grad program?

# ¿ Aug 14, 2011 23:46

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

I keep a tool for opening paint cans (I have no idea what it's called), but you can probably use a knife or screwdriver for that, and a paint roller. I have a couple saws, but I honestly can't remembe the last time I used them.

It's never a bad idea to keep a few dust masks on hand either.

# ¿ Jun 3, 2012 04:38

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

I find ehow works well enough for discovering how to do incredibly basic things, but she has to be willing to search out what she needs help with.

# ¿ Jul 17, 2012 00:10

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

Have you tried talking to him?

# ¿ Aug 5, 2012 18:55

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

Red_Fred posted:

You really shouldn't use a bleach based spray near or on toilets. Pee has ammonia in it and ammonia and bleach are not friends.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleach

I suspect it's not really an issue or products like that wouldn't be released.

edit: although I guess that's not a spray

Xandu fucked around with this message at 02:47 on Aug 26, 2012

# ¿ Aug 26, 2012 02:43

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

I live on the first floor facing the street. I'd like to put my shades up and get some light in, but I'd rather not have people staring into the apartment. Does anyone have experience with frosted glass spray or stick-on film?

# ¿ Mar 26, 2013 04:06

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

C-Euro posted:

Does that...sound completely illogical to anyone else? I mean I guess the bottom line for her leasing office is to have someone be paying for that space, but what's the point of having a lease at all if you can just let it run out and get to keep your place without a contract? She seemed adamant about being correct, even claiming that a place she lived in a couple years ago let her do that (I can't recall what happened there, TBH)

It keeps your rent from going up for the duration of lease.

edit: A couple places I've lived in automatically keep charging you rent after your lease expires unless you notify them you'll be moving out.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2013 02:46

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

No special thread, but it's been discussed a few times in this thread if you look around.

# ¿ Apr 7, 2013 06:25

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

tarepanda posted:

I asked in the small/stupid questions thread too, but I figure it might be applicable here.

Does anyone know where to go to find nice prints/canvas prints from independent artists?

Etsy is a crapshoot, society6 tends toward pop culture stuff, and redbubble seems like it has a lot of the same stuff as society6.

If you're not excluding galleries,

Nucleus Gallery has some cool artists, but there's not a lot in the way of curation so you have to be willing to look around a bit.

Thumbtack Press - I haven't looked around much, but they seem to have some cool prints

Saatchi Online has a bunch of awesome artists at all price points and they sell prints, including canvas, of all their work.

Beers Lambert occasionally has some really cool prints

The Outsiders

Giant Robot is awesome, but it's a very specific style

# ¿ Apr 8, 2013 23:27

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

CheeseSpawn posted:

So I've gotten a new job that pays more and I want to move into an apt with more room so I want to upgrade to a two bedroom. I've thought about staying with my current apt complex but I've also thought about moving out as well. Some places have a price ranges instead of a price. Does that mean you can negotiate in that range? If so, do you have any control in negotiation or do they base it off your application?

It might be dependent on the length of your lease.

# ¿ May 3, 2013 09:16

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

Might be better off taking it to a UPS store and letting them pack it for you if you go that route.

# ¿ Jun 18, 2013 23:54

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

Marmalade Marinade posted:

Anyone have a good idea of where I could go to find art to put on my wall? Or just... neat stuff in general to put on my wall? I'm not really a visual person and am totally fine with blank walls, but people are usually weirded out by that. I don't really like the idea of going to Ikea for art, since it's so generic and bland. Apartment Therapy seems more like a general interior decoration site. I looked at Ebay, but it's just a bunch of dumb bullshit.

I'd like to try and stay away from posters, they wind up annoying me after a while.

What's your budget? I can post some recommendations (I might have before actually if you want to search through my posts in this thread), but it really depends how much you can spend.

# ¿ Aug 8, 2013 03:42

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

Marmalade Marinade posted:

Well, all at once I don't want to go over $100-150 (and if that's one piece it'd have to really impress me), but I'd be open to spending say $300-400 over a longer period of time.

I took the Etsy suggestion and I've found some things that I like:

A David Lynch woodblock print
Something eclectic
Dune, gently caress yeah
This is funny and just about right, but a bit pricey for what it is

I think my favorite is the David Lynch one, but I'm concerned that if I bring a girl back to my place, she's gonna feel creeped out by having the giant visage of David Lynch peering at her.

I also like what the artist of my #2 link has in general. He has sets of 4 that are pretty neat, I figure I could probably drop money on a full set and just do that for now. I'm just worried that they might be too garish.

Yeah I think sticking with etsy or with just regular prints is your best bet. Put them in a nice frame and they'll look good.

# ¿ Aug 10, 2013 21:57

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

tallest crocodile posted:

Also, I've only had experience living in apartment complexes where terms are laid out clearly in a lease, what's the protocol for a situation like this that is a lot more relaxed, where it's literally just renting out a room in a family's home?

I don't have experience with this, but that's something you should make sure is very clearly laid out before you move in.

# ¿ Sep 28, 2013 22:33

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

Yeah, that's a risk, but you can get a detector for that. As long as the fireplace is functioning correctly, it shouldn't be a concern. They do warm up my place a lot, which is really nice, but the logs smell kind of terrible, which seems to be a common complaint.

# ¿ Jan 29, 2014 08:23

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

quote:

we signed it for $240 a week

Not Australian, but I don't think there's much else to it. Consult a lawyer if they keep pushing you.

# ¿ Feb 20, 2014 05:04

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

So let's assume an average of 656kWh per month (maybe not accurate, but average for New Mexico.) So with monthly fees,

$723.84 = electricity company
$779.6= energy co-op

This isn't exactly accurate though, since energy use will be higher in the summer when it's more expensive and I just used the yearly average, but even using the higher rate for all twelve months,

(656kWh * $0.087881 * 12) + ($6.5 * 12) = $769.79

Xandu fucked around with this message at 04:09 on Mar 19, 2014

# ¿ Mar 19, 2014 04:01

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

If you frame it, steam shouldn't be a significant issue. I have a poster with an acrylic glass over it hanging in my bathroom for the past year or so and haven't had any issues with it. I guess if you've got no ventilation in the bathroom and you really care about the poster, it might not be worth the risk.

# ¿ Jun 19, 2014 23:56

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

I would make sure your apartment is covered by that ordinance

http://www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/hcd/s/LandlordResources/DOWD008759

And then it seems like it's really up to the landlord to prove that one of these conditions is met. Also you need to petition within 60 days.

quote:

Banking:
Saving rent increases that are not given in one year and imposing them in subsequent years.
Capital Improvements: Seeking a rent increase based on improvements that materially add to the value of the property and appreciably prolong its useful life or adapt it to new building codes. These improvements must primarily benefit the tenant. Increases are divided among all units benefited by the improvement and are amortized (spread out) over five years. The increase expires at the end of 5 years.
Uninsured Repairs: An increase for work performed to secure compliance with any state or local law to repair damage from fire, earthquake, or other casualty or natural disaster to the extent the repairs are not reimbursed by insurance. These increases are allocated and amortized like capital improvements.
Debt Service Costs: An increase that allows an owner to collect rents sufficient to cover the combined housing service and debt service costs for a loan secured by the property to finance a purchase of the property or improvements in the property that directly benefits the tenants..
Increased Housing Service Costs: An increase that compares two years of operating expenses and allows for an increase in situations where there has been an increase in those costs.
Constitutional Fair Rate of Return: By law, owners must be allowed an increase that allows them to earn a fair rate of return on their investment.

NOTE: An owner may take the CPI Increase OR any combination of individual adjustments, but not both.

More detail here: http://www2.oaklandnet.com/oakca1/groups/ceda/documents/agenda/oak049492.pdf

# ¿ Apr 16, 2015 09:00

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

I have a handful of nice paintings in my apartment. They're not worth a huge amount of money, but are more than a couple of thousand dollars. Is it worth it to get it insured or is that kind of thing more for large, really expensive collections?

# ¿ Apr 25, 2015 22:16

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

New York is going to eat you alive.

Why do you need a desk to apply for food stamps? Go to the library. Save your money.

# ¿ Apr 28, 2015 04:35

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

If you can afford to buy cheap furniture, just tell him thanks but you actually aren't interested in buying the furniture.

# ¿ May 15, 2015 11:47

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

Skunkrocker posted:

Well I did intend to be petty, I really just wanted to make them feel terrible.

I'll edit it down, thanks.

EDIT: How is this?

Here's the issue: they won't give a poo poo. They won't feel bad, they'll still get their money and you'll be wasting your time and creating an even tenser relationship until you are able to move out. Also I thought you were being evicted? Why are you bothering to fight it and pay rent instead of just leaving?

# ¿ Jun 30, 2015 22:40

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

Anachronist posted:

I'm moving cross country soon: I found a furnished apartment on Craigslist in my destination city and applied after briefly talking with the landlord on the phone. He's given me a copy of the lease to sign and also wants a security deposit within a couple days along with the signed lease. The lease will be month to month. Given that I have neither seen the apartment nor met the guy in person, how shady is this situation? Is there stuff I should be doing to check the veracity of all this?

It's not necessarily sketchy, a security deposit is pretty standard and so is signing a lease. If you can't check out the place yourself or get a friend to, I'd propose to the landlord waiting to give him the security deposit until after you move in.

# ¿ Jul 1, 2015 01:17

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

Talking to your neighbors isn't a bad idea, but it's one night and unless you plan on having the party last through the night, you're probably going to be okay.

As for the footsteps thing, can you just have people take their shoes off?

# ¿ Jul 11, 2015 18:37

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

Is it illegal to refuse to rent an apartment to someone because they're too young?

# ¿ Aug 7, 2015 19:15

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

Yeah, they were like "well we are really only looking for families and professionals, definitely no students allowed," but whatever. Not worth fighting.

# ¿ Aug 7, 2015 21:00

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

Anne Whateley posted:

"Student" is not a protected class. Their claim is probably that they only take tenants who make X times the rent (perfectly legal to discriminate based on that). If they can show they didn't accept other people who make the same amount, they're fine.

Yeah, that's basically what it ended up being. I could have covered the rent easily with a co-signer, but apparently that wasn't acceptable. It more just a sense from talking to the leasing office where they kept stressing the type of person they were looking for and were like "oh you have a job, right? You aren't a student? We only accept professionals here."

# ¿ Aug 8, 2015 01:00

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

So I just moved into a pretty nice apartment building. I had seen the model unit but not this specific one before moving in since it was occupied.The hardwood floors are full of giant scratches and dents and and some pieces are chipped. I already took pictures to make sure I don't get charged for it at some point, but is it reasonable for me to demand they fix/replace it?

# ¿ Sep 9, 2015 16:34

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

Where do I find large rugs (like 9 x 12) that aren't either really expensive or really ugly/boring?

# ¿ Sep 25, 2015 01:37

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

Teeter posted:

I've been considering something from Overstock.com but haven't pulled the trigger yet. My issue is that I have a tiny car so I can't really transport anything I buy, but Overstock does free shipping which helps out. Anybody happen to have gone through them before?

Yeah, that's not a bad idea. I ended up going with Rugsusa.com. The list prices are absurd, but everything is like 70% off.

# ¿ Sep 25, 2015 22:04

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

What city? Certainly possible, but hard to say. If they do convert, not much you can do about it whether you change units or not.

# ¿ Oct 5, 2015 21:11

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

Teeter posted:

Any update on this? I got sidetracked for a bit and haven't pulled the trigger on any rug yet, just wondering if you have any input on Rugsusa

I mean, it's not the nicest rug I've ever owned, but with the discounts I'm pretty happy for it considering the price.

# ¿ Oct 16, 2015 17:05

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

It's not necessarily a red flag, he's just clearly desperate. Is it in an undesirable market/location? Definitely do your due diligence and make sure the place is in good shape and there's no problems, but it sounds you could probably get a good deal since he wants to get someone in the house asap. The only thing I'd be concerned about is if any issues do come up after you move in, is this guy going to fix them if he's that desperate for money?

# ¿ Nov 25, 2015 03:27

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

OSheaman posted:

Crosspost from the NYC thread: did anyone here who needed to use guarantors to rent an apartment in NYC have retired parents? My folks have great credit history and plenty in assets (well above the 80x the rent threshold) but are old and their only income is social security. Trying to see if anyone knows any success stories with that scenario or whether I should expect to get laughed out of the landlord's office when I meet with them.

It really depends on the management company. I had one demand I use a third-party rental guarantor (like Insurent) even though my parents had way more than enough income. Another saw their assets and were fine with it. The key is just to have all your paperwork ready.

edit: If you are going through a broker they should be able to steer your in the right direction.

# ¿ Apr 20, 2016 22:39

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

Saeku posted:

First lease questions: my partner and I want to move in together, but I'm not sure how to prove that we're reliable tenants. We're both 25, I work and am finishing a B.Sc, she is about to go for a B.Mus. Here's our monthly financials:

Me:
Employment income $2,090
Student aid less tuition $500 -- once I graduate in spring, my employment income is guaranteed to go up at least enough to cover this & repayments

Her:
Employment income $450 (not including summer jobs and freelance)
Student aid less tuition $670
Parental support $500

So that means we can afford to rent in this city by the 1/3 guideline. HOWEVER: we have no proof of her student aid income since official letters go out late July, and obviously no way to document parental support. We have $8k savings each; I have great credit history, she has none since she's never taken out debts. What's our likelihood of convincing a landlord to rent to us? Can we do it without a cosigner?

A cosigner will make it a lot easier (and this in fact is a good way to demonstrate parental support). Does she need to be on the lease though? You have 2k in income (and thus presumably a job) and good credit history, that should be decent enough.

# ¿ Jun 1, 2016 07:26

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 18:30

Xandu: Feb 19, 2006; It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am.

I don't think SSN is that unusual for a background check, but I wouldn't give out my bank account number, particularly to an individual landlord and not a company. It's not like you can do much with just an account number (it's on your check book), but I don't see a reason why they would need it.

# ¿ Jun 18, 2016 19:37

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Gooncave & Gardens: Moving & Apartment Living, Hunting, & Furnishing

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