This morning I got up early and got a ride to my school in Redwood City where I'm teaching summer school and also working next year from my froommate (friend/roommate?) for the month, Dan, who I know from Peace Corps. I did some training with my coteacher for the summer and then we set up our classroom. I got a set of school keys and got to see my classroom for next year! After we finished at school around 12:30, we got to downtown RC and I checked my phone and saw that a guy I had called about an apartment on craigslist on Tuesday had called me back.
So you should know about my craigslist habit. Every day, all day, I would check. Probably more than once an hour. Anytime I could find anything under $2000 with more than 600 sq ft, I would call, email, stalk, try to get a response. A couple times we said "we'll take it, you don't even have to show it." The entire time I tried to call people from afar, I only ever got two to call me back, and both ended up blowing me off for the sure thing in front of them. One had basically promised to lease us the place, but was usurped by the owner who was getting nervous after the place had been on the market 3 days. I can honestly say it was harder for us to find an apartment from another state than for me to find a job.
So maybe I was on to something actually being in the area, since this guy actually called me back. He offered to show me the place whenever today. I said I'm downtown now and just need to walk there. 30 minutes later, I'm meeting him at this holy grail of apartments. 2 bedrooms, accepts pets, 1000 sq ft, a very large balcony, only a 4-unit building, 3 unshared walls (3 walls for windows!), BIG bedroom closets, laundry in the first floor, our own garage...
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| Our new balcony |
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| The kitchen! |
So after I've looked through it, he asks if I want to proceed. Meanwhile his phone is ringing off the hook and he apologizes to me for not getting back to me sooner.... he had gotten over 100 messages on Tuesday and it was so bad he had had to turn his phone off for awhile. I say yes, proceed! so he has me fill out the application. Luckily I hadn't had time to unpack my backpack so I had all of our credit information that I had brought with me. He had already asked me 8 times if I had good credit (thankfully, yes) and after I filled out the application he grilled me about our work histories and how long we were planning on staying (a long, long time if anyone asks...)
So after he became sufficiently satisfied with our stability, he asked if I wanted to SIGN THE LEASE today. Ok, sure? I had talked to B about it before, it's a great location, 2 mi from my work, 6 from Stanford, and you get much more bang for your buck in this town...so the landlord told me to walk to his office and have his secretary run my credit check...if mine was good he said that would be sufficient....he would need B's signature to run his as well. So I left, and he had two groups come look at the place, who were told they were already behind someone in line. Luckily in the meantime I was able to get in touch with B and he agreed with me that we should do it. Landlord met me back at the office, approved, starting working on the lease, and kept getting phone calls from people, including one who got out of class at 4 pm at Stanford and was planning to come up right after, who had expected to see the place this evening. "Sorry, it's been rented." Best 4 words I've ever heard.*
After all this, the landlord very kindly gave me a ride to the Caltrain station so I could get back to San Francisco. At this point, it was 4:30 pm, I'd only had a Larabar to eat all day, and I was dizzy with excitement about all this searching coming to an end. I asked him about the market and he said it has just gotten absolutely insane in the last 6 months with all of the IPOs and social media companies getting bought by other companies...creating instantly rich people. Said that this 100 calls/day thing is the new normal for him. Told me that a client of his had tried to get a 2br 1 ba condo in San Mateo and had placed a totally reasonable offer but who was beat by a guy who had paid $625,000 CASH for it. So we're moving to a crazy place, living amongst people who have way more money than they know what to do with, but we have a place to hang our hats, and a very nice one to boot. I am really happy, but mostly just feel lucky. This day could have gone very differently, but it didn't.
*Possibly second to "will you marry me," but not by much, truthfully.
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