Another Weekend Apartment Hunting

Today was an interesting day of apartment hunting as my wife and I drove around our target area quite a bit. We left the apartment around noon and made our way to a development that we had already seem two apartments in before with no previous success. They are nice apartments, condos actually, and we even demonstrated interest in one of them before the owners pulled it off the market in favor of selling. This time around, the place met most of our needs but it was priced above our comfort level. It would be possible to pay the rent but it just wasn’t enough to motivate us to move.

From North Wales we headed over to Lansdale which was actually closer to Hatfield to take a look at a two story townhome. The price was right if not a little high but, again, it wasn’t a place that motivated change. It was a solid home but it was at the top end of our budget, too far out, and wasn’t really an increase in usable space over what we have now. Time to move on and go a little further away from where we started our search and look at a house in Hatfield.

Driving up to this next location you could see the potential that the property clearly has but once we entered we both could tell that this was not going to be the place for us. With ragged furniture still scattered throughout the main floor from the evicted tenants, the owner was in the back of the house cleaning the kitchen area and slowly moving the overflow out the door. Heading upstairs, the ‘second bedroom’ was unusable as the roof got in the way of being able to actually utilize the space (turns out that there was no head up there either). So, after looking around, this would have given us a lot more outdoor space but would have been a downsizing in living space and a higher price over where we are now.

One more chance and one more trek across the area as we drove from Hatfield down to Dresher to take a look at the last property of the day. The converted farmhouse offered a lot of the quirks that make 150 year old properties interesting but it was the smaller of the two units in the old house. Perched above a busy street and across from an old hotel it was rather quiet for the location. It was clean and the layout was pretty good but, in the end, the square footage was lacking and the storage space was nearly nonexistent.

We managed to see four properties throughout the day but nothing that would meet our needs. It is looking more and more likely that we will end up renewing the lease at our current apartment building. Again, not the ideal, but after to failed attempts to secure a new place and numerous tours this seems like our best option at this point. We still have another full week and weekend to find a place but we are fairly certain that there will be no move this year.

Again, not ideal but we knew that this was a possibility when we started this weekly search. It also makes me more curious to wonder where we will be next summer. Maybe we can save enough to buy a house. I guess we will have to just continue waiting and see how things go but I am guessing that we will end up having better luck finding a rental this time next year. By that time we will really be ready to find a new place.