Location! Location! Location!

I'm sure at the beginning of my blogging I complained about real estate here in Sydney. It's a big pain dealing with realtors a lot of time time, and it can be really stressful to look at and apply for apartments. They give you some small inflexible window of time to look at and apply, and then you're competing with however many other people who have submitted applications for that one specific place. Having pets makes you ineligible to live in so many buildings, assuming you are honest about it. If you're not, many buildings hold inspections every few months and you can get caught and kicked out. There's also the constant tiny fear as a renter that at any point the owner can just say they want you out of the apartment with X weeks notice. This has happened to a few people we know.

When we lived in Arlington, VA we rented our apartment from the building and not from an individual owner, with some random realtor that they've chosen, which is so much simpler. Sure, the building could still kick you out with some notice, but it's less likely. Your application odds are better because there are often several units up for rent.

We got lucky that our current place has a good realtor/property manager that returns our calls and emails in a timely manner, and helps fix any problems quickly; not everyone is so fortunate. We are allowed to have our lovely cats. There are lots of great and convenient things about where we live, but it is still very small. It also doesn't have any actual usable doors, which is weird. Yes, we have a bedroom door but it doesn't really shut because it's too big for its frame. Yes, we have a bathroom door but it's more of a sliding board. We don't have a clothes dryer or a bathtub. None of these amenities is a given in a Sydney apartment.

We recently discovered that a frisbee couple we know has an apartment they are looking to rent in a few months. It's also a one-bedroom, but bigger than our current place (big enough to actually have small groups of people over!). Cats are allowed. Although the neighborhood isn't as picturesque or as close to the beach as our current one, it has a central location in the city, walking distance to more of our friends and places we go. There is a bathtub and a dryer! It has working doors! And, the bathroom door isn't right next to the bed! We would have enough room for a normal-sized couch and a kitchen table! It'll will be like we're aristocrats. Also, we wouldn't have to deal with a realtor/property manager, we would just have to deal with our friends, who are reasonable, like-minded people. 

Needless to say, we are hoping this works out. Stay tuned.