My Experience Apartment Hunting

As many of you know, I had a job at a marketing agency in CT. Since I was born and raised in Jersey, having a job in CT meant I needed to find a place to live.

Luckily, one of my friends and college roommates was still attending Quinnipiac for her Masters degree, so we agreed to find an apartment and live together. We were able to agree on a budget that worked for us, and agreed on a variety of locations that were in the middle of Quinnipiac and my place of work.

However, when it came to actually finding an apartment, it was not an easy task. We looked online and all the different platforms friends, family, and even realtor friends recommended to us. We would put our budget and location in, and scroll through all the results.

There were many apartments that advertised as available, and had exactly what we were looking for, however, when we would call to inquire more or book a tour, we were told they did not have any availability.

This was a common theme throughout our search for an apartment. Many places claimed to have apartments available on websites and advertisements, but when the time came to actually look at an apartment, there was nothing. Whether it was false advertising, or the apartments were getting picked up quick, we were out of luck.

Until one day, when we found an apartment that was well within our budget, in a town we both agreed upon, and claimed to have availability. When we went to visit the place however, it looked nothing like the pictures. Both of us agreed we wouldn’t feel comfortable renting and staying in an apartment like this, so we walked away.

We saw one other apartment that day. It was beyond beautiful, in a nice and safe area, and had everything we were looking for. The issue? Way over budget. We were out of options.

Unfortunately, this was also at the time I had to make some big decisions at work. When I came to the decision to quit my job and move back home, gone went the need for an apartment. I’m somewhat glad I made the decision, because at the end of the day the only two apartment options were places I either didn’t feel comfortable sleeping in, or would make me broke after a month of staying in the apartment.

It was shocking though, to see how difficult the process of finding a place to live was. I wonder how it will be in the future when I am ready to move out on my own!