Alec

Alec is moving. I am not ok with that. When he was about 12, his family moved to Singapore. I cried, inconsolably, for what seemed like days. In this case, he and his sweet girlfriend are going to graduate school in the Midwest where they are going to learn how to be even more awesome architects.

Nope. I'm totally not ok.

This past week, Alec has called me asking for landlord and apartment advice. From what I understand, he has done pretty well on his own. This is a brand-new city, and his experiences there have been limited to a trip in April to check out the campus, lots of Googling and a trip last week to find a place to live.

During his trip, Alec looked at 10 apartments in less than 48 hours. He didn't say so, but I am guessing his head was spinning. He checked out crime rates for the area, accessibility to campus and a litany of tangible and intangible attributes to each home. What it boiled down to was he liked two places: a condo near campus and a duplex (I believe) where the landlord didn't accept pets.

Though he didn't have to be a reader of this blog to know how to handle this (his mother is a master-negotiator), he did pursue the duplex. He managed to make a good enough impression on the landlord, that the guy was willing to let Alec keep his 10 year old cat. Not that Alec would be a hard sell. A well-mannered, polite grad student was probably a welcome change from the guy who had the tin-foil hat. No offense Alec.

Alec has called asking about the application, wondering if he should send a letter attached in the interest of full disclosure specifically stating he didn't have a job. Alec will be a starving student, living on his life savings and financial aid. He won't have a steady income right away.

I said, "no!" Let the landlord figure this one out on his own. It turns out the application asked these questions anyway. But there is no reason to bring this to the forefront of the landlord's attention.

My guess is the landlord has already made up his mind about Alec, long before he ever saw Alec's application. Most of the time I know who I want to rent to long before I see the application. I use the application as a litmus test to see if my potential tenants are as attractive on paper as they are on the phone or in real life. I want to see what potential tenants omit on the application as well as what they answer. Omissions speak loud and clear.

Last I heard, the landlord was showing the house again (hopefully to some crazed, tinfoil hat type). However, he told Alec if everything looked good and his credit was decent, it would probably be his. That said, the landlord hasn't asked for a security deposit yet.

I would like to tell you Alec has found a place to live. But, I can only speak from my experiences. Hopefully he has. Hopefully the landlord is as accountable as Alec happens to be and is now holding the duplex for him for a couple more weeks.

If not, maybe Alec will change his mind about the whole graduate school thing and stay here just a little longer.

But, probably not.