Apartment Hunting

Timothy surveyed the renter's guide that he had obtained from the cafe. It was his third day in the city, and he was desperate to find an apartment to stay in. It wasn't so much as him not having a place to stay, but that he didn't feel at all comfortable imposing on his friend for so long given that he would be here for quite a while. His friend had been polite and said that he didn't mind, but Timothy was one of those people who did not like owing favours, especially big ones.

He sat at the table in the cafe, a cup of the cheapest brew available there to help justify his position. The renter's guide was fairly complete, and had the advantage of organising the apartments in two ways; first by price, and second by location. Timothy had a starting account of around ten thousand dollars in his bank, but that money was not going to last if he didn't manage to find a job soon enough. And so, a relatively cheap apartment would be more useful to him than pure material comfort.

He took a sip from his coffee, his eyes scanning the list. There were a couple of single room rentals that cost nearly three hundred a month, but they were severely limited in that they only had space for a bed and probably a dresser desk with nothing else. The next tier up was around four hundred a month and had a much larger room---bed, writing desk, enough floor space for a shelf or two, carpetted. Those seemed to be interesting enough that Timothy took out his pencil to mark them down. There were five of them available that were within that price range with those features.

Past that price point though, he was looking at full apartment rentals. Those differed from the room rentals in that easy unfettered access to the kitchen and refrigerator were implied, compared to the single room rentals that may either come from a single landlord letting out a room or a cooperative trying to defray their joint apartment rental cost. A quick glance revealed a couple of studio apartments being rented at the rate of nearly six hundred a month, an amount that Timothy felt to be not tenable for him, especially since he hasn't found a job yet. There was a minimum tenancy of one year, and he needed the mobility that the single room rentals could provide.

With that in mind, Timothy finished up his coffee and started to plan his apartment visits.

(Based on an exercise generated by WriteThis - 2014-01-23 17:14:29)