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House Tour
So, housing deadlines for next year are coming up, and I need to decide where to go – and so do my roommates. And one of them is seriously looking for a house. Today we looked at the one closest to campus.
"Closest", right now is ... walking distance. (That's "ellipsis-walking-distance", for those of you playing along at home – halfway to College Park Metro, on the other side of the sound barrier across from the firefighter training center.) It's nominally rated for five tenants, although they allow more, and would be $700/mo for twelve months (eleven months?) for each of those five. Five tenants (the nominal maximum) could get permits for street parking, and the driveway is capacious enough for four cars if they were queued up in there.
As for the house – well, let me strive for objectivity. Bear in mind that the current tenants have been in place since last August, and the landlord promises a thorough cleaning and repair run before the next group moves in.
Entering the house, there was a detectable mildew odor. There was also trash – both on the front lawn and on the floors. (Hardwood floors, with some carpeting, and a little creaking. Not much.) The living room was edging towards small, with the leftmost section coming in occupied by the stair to the second floor, but there were a couple couches comfortably ensconced in there, and I don't expect we'd use the fireplace. We were informed by the current resident that these were the current tenants', and only the dressers were provided by way of furniture.
The kitchen? Tiny. No dishwasher, but a (one-basin) sink, refrigerator, gas stove/oven (I did not examine it closely) and a door to a roofed-but-open-on-the-sides patio. Also in the rear of the house were two small bedrooms (the one we saw was dominated by the single bed in it, the other was locked – and yes, now that I think of it, I believe the bedrooms did lock), a small (grungy) bathroom and the door to the basement.
The basement was likewise endowed with an odor. In addition, there was a certain amount of damage to the wall and ceiling, which the tenant showing us around assured us would be repaired. (He said it was a sty [I paraphrase] when he saw it before renting, but it was cleaned up marvelously before they moved in.) I, recalling the stories of fires, checked the condition of the basement door – the door opened and locked fine. Also in the basement were laundry facilities and another refrigerator, both of which we were assured were reliable. We were informed that there had been a couple occasions where problems had occurred (the garbage disposal in the sink clogging, a water leak) that had both been rapidly and competently repaired at no cost to the tenants ("We never even saw the bill"). We were told that the basement was in use as a bedroom by two of the current tenants.
Upstairs (the house was a two-storey) were two more bedrooms, one of which was quite as large as my current dorm 'double', and the other we never saw. There was also another bathroom, also grungy.
The front and rear yards are a size I imagine typical for a suburb – which, now that I think of it, is significantly larger than I imagine is common in developed areas these days. There was a corner of the back yard occupied by bamboo. There was also a two-car garage, but we were told there was a significant additional fee for use of it, as it is employed as storage by the landlords.
So, is it a decent house? All we have heard of the landlord was highly positive (this certainly doesn't sound like a 'rent it to the college idiots so we can collect the insurance when they burn it down' type, although they are not local), and it is near campus. The current tenants are obviously less-than-ideal, which would explain the poor conditions prevailing at the time of the tour, and my prospective co-tenants are (mostly) straight-arrow guys. It is supposed to be wired for high-speed Internet, as well.
The other option, of course, is commuting from home – an hour trip ($1.85 off peak, $2.50 on, one way) taking the Metro. Or, if I'm lucky, staying on campus somewhere.
"Closest", right now is ... walking distance. (That's "ellipsis-walking-distance", for those of you playing along at home – halfway to College Park Metro, on the other side of the sound barrier across from the firefighter training center.) It's nominally rated for five tenants, although they allow more, and would be $700/mo for twelve months (eleven months?) for each of those five. Five tenants (the nominal maximum) could get permits for street parking, and the driveway is capacious enough for four cars if they were queued up in there.
As for the house – well, let me strive for objectivity. Bear in mind that the current tenants have been in place since last August, and the landlord promises a thorough cleaning and repair run before the next group moves in.
Entering the house, there was a detectable mildew odor. There was also trash – both on the front lawn and on the floors. (Hardwood floors, with some carpeting, and a little creaking. Not much.) The living room was edging towards small, with the leftmost section coming in occupied by the stair to the second floor, but there were a couple couches comfortably ensconced in there, and I don't expect we'd use the fireplace. We were informed by the current resident that these were the current tenants', and only the dressers were provided by way of furniture.
The kitchen? Tiny. No dishwasher, but a (one-basin) sink, refrigerator, gas stove/oven (I did not examine it closely) and a door to a roofed-but-open-on-the-sides patio. Also in the rear of the house were two small bedrooms (the one we saw was dominated by the single bed in it, the other was locked – and yes, now that I think of it, I believe the bedrooms did lock), a small (grungy) bathroom and the door to the basement.
The basement was likewise endowed with an odor. In addition, there was a certain amount of damage to the wall and ceiling, which the tenant showing us around assured us would be repaired. (He said it was a sty [I paraphrase] when he saw it before renting, but it was cleaned up marvelously before they moved in.) I, recalling the stories of fires, checked the condition of the basement door – the door opened and locked fine. Also in the basement were laundry facilities and another refrigerator, both of which we were assured were reliable. We were informed that there had been a couple occasions where problems had occurred (the garbage disposal in the sink clogging, a water leak) that had both been rapidly and competently repaired at no cost to the tenants ("We never even saw the bill"). We were told that the basement was in use as a bedroom by two of the current tenants.
Upstairs (the house was a two-storey) were two more bedrooms, one of which was quite as large as my current dorm 'double', and the other we never saw. There was also another bathroom, also grungy.
The front and rear yards are a size I imagine typical for a suburb – which, now that I think of it, is significantly larger than I imagine is common in developed areas these days. There was a corner of the back yard occupied by bamboo. There was also a two-car garage, but we were told there was a significant additional fee for use of it, as it is employed as storage by the landlords.
So, is it a decent house? All we have heard of the landlord was highly positive (this certainly doesn't sound like a 'rent it to the college idiots so we can collect the insurance when they burn it down' type, although they are not local), and it is near campus. The current tenants are obviously less-than-ideal, which would explain the poor conditions prevailing at the time of the tour, and my prospective co-tenants are (mostly) straight-arrow guys. It is supposed to be wired for high-speed Internet, as well.
The other option, of course, is commuting from home – an hour trip ($1.85 off peak, $2.50 on, one way) taking the Metro. Or, if I'm lucky, staying on campus somewhere.