Apartment Hunting General Discussion

[FISHMANPET]

2 cats in the ghetto supremacy.

[IllogicalJake]

Anyone here getting charged pet rent? I'm not, but it seems to be a thing. Every nickel and dime, I tell ya!

Soo Line was one of the few DT apartments I looked at that doesn't charge monthly for pets.

[Pip]

I didn't realize this topic was still going. I ended up moving to Track 29 Apartments in Uptown. I'm glad I moved to Uptown, a lot more fun than the burbs. A few things getting used to but overall good.

[Silophant]

Anyone here getting charged pet rent? I'm not, but it seems to be a thing. Every nickel and dime, I tell ya!

Every place I toured in Loring Park and Downtown asked me if I had a pet, which I assume would have been a prelude to telling me about pet rent if I had answered yes.

[mulad]

I'm far away from Uptown, but I believe my apartment complex imposes an extra one-time pet deposit, rather than extra rent.

[Chava]

I'm far away from Uptown, but I believe my apartment complex imposes an extra one-time pet deposit, rather than extra rent.

Fee or deposit? Some places told us about a non refundable "deposit." When I mentioned that it was just a fee since it wasn't refunded, they kept calling it a deposit, as if calling it that made the non refundable part a bit easier. Funny semantics!

[Anondson]

Minnesota has a funny history with passive aggressive word usage. Taxes become fees, fees become deposits, ...

[Chava]

Minnesota has a funny history with passive aggressive word usage. Taxes become fees, fees become deposits, ...

Haha. Duly noted.

I just enjoy hashing it out with them. If you're asking $1500+ for a one bed with not one single utility included, I'm going to clarify every definition of fee, poll tax, administrative cost, and deposit! And have a little fun with them.

[David Greene]

Walked through my neighborhood (the Wedge) today and saw one unit in a duplex available for $1300/mo. That is not very much less than what we pay for our mortgage and I bought during the peak of the market AND we have an accelerated payment schedule. If we had a 30 year loan it would probably be pretty close to the rent being asked.

Seems like a total ripoff to me, but then the owner of the house across the street that is smaller than ours is asking $450k so maybe the market has sprung back in a huge way.

[RailBaronYarr]

I dunno, man. Just a simple thought experiment here... If we define $1,300/mo as not much less than $1,500 for a monthly home payment, what do you get? Today's historically low mortgage interest rates on a 30-year mortgage, putting 20% down (not very common even among second time buyers), avoiding PMI (which keeps monthly payment lower than it would be on a 5% down loan), paying $4k/yr in taxes and $1,500/yr in property insurance gets you a house with a purchase price of ~$265k. And that $1,500/mo payment doesn't include the maintenance/upkeep costs on the inside of a condo, nor does it include the NPV of the $53,000 just spent on the down payment (in that particular scenario).

I was curious for would-be Wedge owners, since having just concluded a home search I remember it being particularly expensive for anything with 3+ BRs. Right now there are 7 properties in the Wedge (according to theMLSonline.com) listed at or below $290k (a reasonable list to expect a $265k purchase price), and exactly 0 of them are single family homes, and only 4 of them have 2 BR (none have more), listed from most to least expensive with their likely monthly payments (assuming 20% down, purchase price $10k below list, and a few other assumptions):
- 2 BR 1 BA, yr built 2007, 858 sqft. $269k list, $3k/yr property taxes, $263/mo association (includes exterior maint. and insurance): $1,538/mo
- 2 BR 2 BA, YB 1907, 1254 sqft, $219k list, $2,580/yr taxes, $370/mo assoc: $1,417/mo
- 2 BR 1 BA, YB 1910, 950 sqft, $159k list, $2,300/yr taxes, $350/mo assoc: $1,137/mo
- 2 BR 1 BA, YB 1900, 833 sqft, $129k list, $1,062/yr taxes, $385/mo assoc: $949/mo

Obviously, the debate over rent vs own isn't cut and dry - tons of factors at play. If you planned on making a large down payment and plan on staying in the neighborhood for 5+ years, and/or you like to put your personal touch on a place, you can probably win out with a small-ish condo purchase. If labor mobility and not spending thousands up front are important to you, as well as not being responsible for interior upkeep, renting isn't a waste by any stretch.

[talindsay]

Yeah, ownership makes sense for a variety of reasons but "value" isn't a very good one for most people. On top of the mortgage payment, possibly PMI, homeowners insurance, property tax, special assessments that RBY mentions above (which are above the actual payment but included in the escrow collected with the mortgage payment), and besides all the maintenance that you can think of (roof every 20 years for $10k, water heater every ten years for $1k, plus all major appliances - and there's a lot - failing between 15 and 20 years, hopefully scattered so you can afford it), plus yard work, plus external structure upkeep, plus getting to pay when the city decides to dig up your sewer line / sidewalk / trees / boulevard, on top of all that you have to pay ALL YOUR OWN utilities - no gas or water included in that monthly payment like most rent includes them. And guess what, gas is EXPENSIVE when you're heating a Minneapolis house in the winter. Electricity is usually not included in rent either, but it's more expensive in a house generally - more base load drawing electricity. Plus toilets that don't flush properly are your problem. Somebody trips on your sidewalk and it's your problem. Neighborhood values start going down? Your problem. Values start going up? Again, your problem and that supposedly "fixed" monthly payment starts rising to cover the property tax.

And so forth.

Now I don't intend to sell my house; but if I'd truly *understood* all the things you get in return for having a landlord I might not have rushed to buy my house 14 years ago.

[David Greene]

These are all good points and of course own vs. rent is much more complicated than what I posted but I guess my point was that the rent seemed excessively high for the area, especially given what's being charged for brand new construction.

But maybe I'm just not with the times. When I moved back here 11 years ago, rents were hovering around $800/mo.

[talindsay]

Heh, "with the times" is a problem. When I bought my house I was living in a 1BR apartment just south of Uptown at 35th and Dupont, that was $550/mo with one parking spot, water and gas included. So I just compare current rent to my mortgage payment and don't try to justify it against what I paid as a renter.

[Viktor Vaughn]

Anybody on here looking for rentals these days? our place is being sold so we *might* be booted out after they close this month. I had guessed that the rental market would start to be loosening given the flood of new buildings opening and more folks going back to buying as the housing market recovers.

So far my experience has been nice places are being rented immediately and landlords are asking crazy high prices for junk. Landlords seem almost overwhelmed with the numdber of inquiries they get on their ads.

I'm thinking about offering to sign another lease at the current place with the new landlord because it doesn't seem like we can get what we have now for what we're paying.

I'm just curious what other people are experiencing in this market. And...anyone have a SFH (or nice duplex) for rent?

[twincitizen]

I'm looking too, but my options are super limited by the requirement that I have a balcony (or other deck/patio arrangement). Once you go balcony, you don't go back. It's just SO nice to get home from work in the summer and sit outside.

I'm looking in the $850-$950 range for a 1BR in a decent building with a balcony in the greater Uptown/Whittier area. I've found a couple in CARAG that I'm considering. Moving south of Lake Street sounds more appealing all the time (especially since I don't currently work downtown)

If I had just had the courage to put in my 60-day notice on July 31, even without a new apartment secured, I'd be moving into a new place Oct. 1. As it is, I'm probably stuck until spring now, due to a "winter move-out" clause that supersedes my lease. I'm apparently prohibited from moving out between November and April or something like that. Could they legally sue me to collect rent if I were to bail this winter? My lease is up Sept. 30 and their policy is to go month-to-month, rather than make me sign a new lease. If I lose my $400 damage deposit, so be it, but I don't want them coming after me trying to collect rent for Nov-March

If anyone sees decent looking apartments with balconies out there, feel free to share. I'm putting together a list of moderately priced ones, which I'll share with y'all. Obviously there are others that fit the price range (seen a few in Whittier up by Franklin, but I'm not interested), but for the most part, places with balconies are usually newer and/or in higher priced locations (near Calhoun, etc.)

2321 Aldrich (Horing Cos)
2300 Pleasant (ZPG Cos)
2800 Grand (Kleinman Realty)
3513 Dupont (Kleinman Realty)

Any others you've seen out there?

[VAStationDude]

1932 Emerson has a deck on top of the parking garages.

[David Greene]

Is a Duplex ok? Lots of those with porches in the area. Some even have balconies/decks off the back. I don't know what they rent for, though.

[TommyT]

A friend of mine just moved into City Place Lofts. No balconies and it's Section 42 but they are VERY nice (IMHO) for $900 or so a month if you make within the income guidelines.

[Nick]

GENERAL OBSERVATION: Regarding views, I was in my apartment on the 16th floor of my building facing away from the skyline for a long time, and had been pining to move the skyline side of the building for ages. After 25 months in that unit, I hopped over to the 20th floor on the skyline side, and it has a very nice view of the city. After a month, I...don't really notice it anymore? It's cool having people over so they can be wowed the way I was the first few days, but it's pretty much just a desktop background at this point. The rent is ~$100/month more, which isn't that big of a deal, but I don't know that I'd, say, take out an extra $50,000 of mortgage to be on floor 30 vs. floor 15, or whatever.

[mattaudio]

Amen. Take that extra cash and use it to experience things on the ground level of the city!