condo concerto

A big day: We set out at 8 am to meet Dell for a tour of six condos. (We had requested to see seven, but one of them got bought. The housing market is hot.)

• Razorback Ridge #1-3: Our first stop was a series of three condos in the same apartment complex. All were third-floor condos with skylights and similar layouts. The first and third were quite nice. The second one was a little more grungy—not terrible, but strictly inferior to the other two. The neighborhood looked decent, and the location was excellent: only nine minutes' walk from the train station.
• Not Enough Stop Signs: Our next stop was a townhouse. This was low on the list, and it looked run-down so it was an easy no. Also there were multiple nearby intersections with no stop signs on either side, which gave Dad a conniption (not really a factor for me, but it was funny).
• Razorback Redux: After a five-minute drive, our GPS brought us…back to Razorback Ridge? I thought perhaps Mom input the wrong address, but the apartment really was in the same complex. I guess that’s why the location was similarly good. This one was a first-floor apartment. Less stairs to walk, but more susceptible to flood damage and burglary. Condition-wise, it wasn’t bad, but a tad inferior to apartments #1 and #3.
• Cat Hideaway: Our final stop was possibly the nicest condo, but the worst location—it was 1 mile away from the train station, and the line ends a ways from work, so it’s a bit of a hike on both ends. There was also a cat, so residual dander could cause allergy issues if I were living there long-term.

Afterwards, we swung by my old apartment to get some stuff. We found out that the asshole management changed the locks on my apartment without notifying me. What a bunch of crooks. I hope the Village puts them out of business.

Thankfully, we ran into one of the office ladies who agreed to open the door for me. She explained that management changed all the locks in the building because people had been sneaking in and living in the apartments without permission. (We had previously wondered, what’s stopping us from moving back in, since the place seems perfectly fine and livable? Apparently, this.) She also said that it would be at least a year before any of the apartments would be inhabitable. The shocking thing was not the news itself but the fact that it was not communicated to residents in any way. Our last communications from apartment management were (1) a rather shrill email about how hard they’ve been working to improve the building and (2) a notice about payment options for October rent. (We are obviously not paying rent. It was a funny email though.)

Then we went for a late lunch at McDonalds and I sent in an offer for Razorback #1, the very first condo we saw that day. We liked #1 and #3 about equally, but #1 was built three years more recently, which was the tiebreaker.

The offer got accepted that evening! This is honestly kind of scary. But exciting. I had no real plans to become a homeowner, but the fire situation forced my hand.