Worst Boomerang Ever
She isn’t moving. Not yet anyway.
In my excitement over finding that updated apartment under budget I chose to bury the frustration I had with a rental office that was impossible to reach, impossible to get a call back from, and who had one gal refusing to wear a mask while dealing with a customer because “I can’t get COVID.” I ignored all of that because of the whole “it was just moment in time/ give them the benefit of the doubt” thing.
But today I was having trouble signing the lease and getting the insurance squared away (remember it is all online and our new roommate has never logged in to a computer) and while trying AGAIN to find a direct number to the office I instead fell into a black hole of scathing reviews on the apartment complex. Some as far back as 2 years, just as many more from within the last year and the last few months. It seems the cockroach infestation of 2018 hasn’t resurfaced but the ongoing issues include (but are not limited to)
completely unresponsive staff
elevators going out weekly
laundry machines regularly not working
stolen cars out of garage
stolen packages (despite having a secure drop locker)
vandalized cars
cars with permits being towed
garbage chutes overflowing
no hot water for days and weeks at a time
walks not cleared of snow and ice
and then the regular barking dog, pot smoking, loud bullshit you would expect in an apartment.
Nope.
I cannot allow her to live somewhere where the elevator goes out and she can’t get up the floor to her place. I also can’t allow her to live somewhere where her car is towed after being parked in the same spot for a week.
I am not signing up for a year of complaints about her apartment. Not when it seems before she moves in that it is justified. I have had problems with staff not being responsive. I witnessed 2 of the 4 washing machines leaking on the floor and out of order, and I stepped in a big pile of dog poo outside her apartment patio. 183 reviews and the average is a 2.3. I get how online reviews work. You ignore the high and low and look for the pattern. This pattern isn’t good.
So….. ok. 25 items on my to-do list just went away. I now need to determine what to do with the stack of items at her townhome that were designated for her apartment. And I need to tell our new roommate that she isn’t going anywhere. And then I need to start over with my research and determine when a place does have an opening and do that.
BUT… there is one option. It is $400 over her budget but it is perfect. PERFECT. One level townhome with in unit laundry, attached garage, 1000 square feet (the other apartments were all in the 700 range) and french doors leading to a patio where she could smoke. In Bloomington. It would eliminate the safety, the walking, the elevator, the concerns about stepping over the in floor heat to get outside and smoke, the feeling of being trapped in a tiny apartment…. all of it. But miss “I’m going to reupholster all my furniture because I have plenty of money” needs to dip into her savings and fork it over. OR/AND she needs to contact her mortgage company for the townhome and see if pausing payments on her mortgage with no penalty is an option. I have literally looked in to ever single apartment in 3 cities and there are 4 good options for her.
My priorities and my action keep getting yanked around and I hate it. Worst. Boomerang. Ever.