Quote: (10-21-2018 10:54 AM)Jetset Wrote:
In a car-centric city, being able to say "it's just a five minute Uber away" and only be lying by five minutes is fine. In a walkable city, forget even that.
If you can't afford to be that close, at least scout out a neighborhood with a few decent venues in line-of-sight so that you can say "this place is getting boring, I'm going to another cool place and you're coming with me" and then be able to literally point and say "I'm right over here".
My first apartment was a shitbox that had barely been remodeled since Grant crushed Lee, but it was directly behind the college bars and two doors from a coffee shop. That was far more important than anything else in making it work.
This is a good point.
When you are in your 20's it works in your favor to live in a place that is central, a bit 'rough' and has character.
I lived in the worst neighborhood in Canada for almost 9 years. It was built in 1911, served as a hospice for WW1 soldiers returning and had many 'ghosts' to chill me to the bones. The outside was nothing but a turn of the century wood and brick box.
But on the inside, I knew I had a gem. I ripped up the flooring to find clear fir hardwood. I pulled out the kitchen and re modeled it. Re worked the bathroom with its paw foot tub mid century tile work. The living room window, single pane and ice cold, looked over the old town with all its lights and bars and restaurants. The fire escape became mine, 400 sq feet with comfortable sofas and nice lighting. Stereo, BBQ and that killer view. It was a 2 bdrm and we payed $720 a month in the most expensive city in the country. After a few years, I booted the roommate and had the full 1500sqft to myself. This place, at this age (my early to mid 20's) had a better response from girls than when I first moved into my luxury high rise.
Most women love a diamond in the rough. When it comes to men and apartments, they tingle hard when they think of how special they will feel in the end, when all the work is done and they get to show off their unique apartment/man to all her friends, and they *gasp* at the transformation, giving her social accolades straight out of reality TV.