We hit the ground running when we arrived in Chapel Hill on Thursday morning. The goal was to find an apartment within the following day and a half and I will tell you, dear readers, that the goal was well met! Though not without stress.
First we hit up a couple of giant apartment complexes. They ranged from cheap to really expensive - $425 to $699 for a one bedroom - but all complexes included an outdoor pool which shocked this Chicago girl. They were shabby to really nice, but after seeing a few, I knew it wasn't my ideal. We were hanging out for a break by the co-op grocery in the area, using the free Internet, when I decided to call the co-op affiliated realty company. It turned out that they didn't rent apartments, except for one guy, "Don" who had some of his own units for rent. He invited us to his office (dog friendly, of course) where he used his special realtor's code to look up some apartment listings, and then used his knowledge to screen one bedroom apartments in my price range. He showed us his place for rent (in a basement though, not my thing) and told us about the fun coffee bars, pubs, and an "underground" "smoke shop" whose hours were set by when the owner's car was parked in the back. Uh-huh. It was great, just what I was hoping to find, and he was very kind to spend the time.
He also told us where to find local BBQ, Mama Dip's or Allen and Son, and about one of the big rental companies, of which he described the owner as a "pitbull with lipgloss." Don's list of apartments also led us to my final pick. It is a cute two bedroom on the second floor of a house, has free laundry and parking, and is really close to the campus and downtown. I left happy and relieved that I found a good place to live. for (I hope) the next two years.
No comments:
Post a Comment