It is near a university. I live near a university and it can be a pain. But this one is in one of the worst traffic areas on one of the worst traffic and worst condition freeways. It’s miles off the freeway on little two lane roads with super heavy traffic. So I show up, I’m 10 minutes early and the agent isn’t there. No worries. I see some other people standing outside the gate to the property. At 4 sharp- a POS Hyundai pulls up and a dude who looks like a Miami Vice extra, and somehow like he is 12 and 40 at the same time- comes out. Is this my agent? Nope. I’m parked right next to him standing by the gate and he walks by and let’s the other family in. They vanish in the distance. Well... 4:05. I’ll call the office. Yup. That was my guy. He points and says “it’s at the end. Up the white stairs on the left.” Then he walks back to the parking lot. Ok. So no ID required, no chaperone, he lets me in to a gated community. The exterior is worn and the paint is old and cracking....

There is mold everywhere. Inside is track lighting, tiny closets, sprinklers like a freaking chipotle or a warehouse on the ceilings. The walls are scuffed and chipped. There are holes in them, stick on coat hangers all over. Cracked drywall, there is a washer drier that are too big for their locations. You can’t open both at once, not so big a deal... except one of them blocks the fuse box and you’d have to drag it into the bedroom to replace a fuse. The stove is scratched up badly. One bedroom has a giant sticker of a map of the US partially peeled off the wall. The master closet has no hanger rod. Instead it has cheap metal universal shelving that is bent and dusty. The master bath has grout missing from the tub. The lights and mirrors are rusty. There is black mold behind the door. The fixtures in the bathrooms asides the cheap fiberglass tubs don’t match in any way. Above the fireplace is a cheap wall mount for a flat screen tv, drywall screwed over the mantle. Classy.

I can belive that they would run a property so badly and be so cheap, I just can’t belive they’d show it like that. There was a motorcycle parked across the sidewalk to the stairs and chained up. Like really? Really? They weren’t asking for pennies. It’s a rental unit, It isn’t a lot for a 2 bedroom, but it’s hardly a good value for what they presented. I’ve looked at several places very near there but on the other side of the university where there’s no access. They’ve averaged only $200 more a month and not looked like that, had modern amenities and were well kept, some had garages, one was a 17 acre complex with its own hiking trails and quaint wooden bridges over a creek- and it had peacocks wandering around! The area I’m looking at is an undesirable location in a lousy place, I was just so pissed they wasted my and anyone else’s time looking at that for the price they want. Generously it would be worth half the price.

So largely venting, but also asking if anyone else has rental or house shopping horror stories. One of the only worse places I’ve ever looked at was when we were planning to flip a property and looked at an honest to goodness ex meth lab that still had bio hazard and police tape everywhere. You had to sign a waiver that you knew you’d have to raze the house and haul out the dirt if you bought it. We passed on that one- but with the market at the time we did consider it!

If they won't fix it to show it, they're not going to maintain it for a tenant. But probably you already figured this out. Me:20+ years of apartment living, some good, some bad.

Hi Guest, so are you finished moving in yet ? lol

@nossedai- thank you. I agree 100%. I told them so in their post showing survey too. It doesn’t give a positive feeling when at the point in the relationship they want your money and don’t have it yet that they put so little effort into earning it. It makes me think that once the lease is signed and they have what they want, why would they suddenly start trying then?
@popsy- lol. Believe it or not I had to pass up on that dream house. I put in an application at another place. It’s about the same rent, half an hour of traffic (so about 10 Miles) further from my work, but it has an attached garage and my better half loves it, so we will cross our fingers since that’s the only place we have applied to.

Sounds like a place that's looking to take advantage of university students who don't know any better/can't find anything else.
Personally, my first landlady was very likely a demon - walking in unannounced, uninterested in fixing problems, unprompted comments about my appearance, etc. It took moving to a different country for me to actually find some decent living options, haha.

@unicycle- wow. That’s extreme when you have to leave the country just to find a good landlord! I’m hoping I won’t have to go that far. I’m glad you were able to find a place though.