Young professionals with cat seek apartment…
Posted on July 18, 2006 13 Comments
Here’s an e-mail I sent to a potential landlord in Naperville:
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Hello,
I wonder if you’d consider showing this property to a young, professional couple with one well-behaved, old (8 yr. old) cat? I gather that most similar places in the area are college houses. I would be commuting to Chicago and my boyfriend will be commuting to DeKalb daily. We currently live in Oak Park.
Please e-mail if you are interested in showing the property.
Thank you.
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We drove by a nearby apartmement a few days ago because it was close to the train, and it turned out to be a college house (you know the type, big porch, old furniture bought for a case of beer from a frat guy, unkept hedges, close proximity to a school). So I was suggesting that perhaps he’d like to rent to a working couple instead of college students. I thought this would be our “one up” over other potential rentees. My e-mail practically screams: “We are young, yet we are professionals! We are clean and well-mannered! We’re never home to mess up your flooring because we’re so young and professional!”
He responded:
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Sorry, don’t take cats.
Few houses are college houses unless your next to
the college and even then its yuppies.
Good luck
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He might as well have added “TAKE THAT!” after the whole college/yuppie line.
Should I be offended? Perhaps he does not realize that the term “yuppies” is short for “Young Professionals” as alluded to in my e-mail. Or maybe he does know this and wishes to scorn my yuppie lifestyle and my love of cats. Regardless, Brian and I are certainly not welcome on his “TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE!” low-rent, Craig’s list property.
Ah, the mean streets of Naperville. (Sing with me: When you’re a Jet…)
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13 Responses to “Young professionals with cat seek apartment…”
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July 18th, 2006 @ 6:20 pm
Yeah, Naperville is a pretty uppity/yuppie town so you’ll have to get used to that. It’s not much of a college town (except for North Central, which is by no means a party school). It’s mainly stay at home moms with Dr’s for husbands.
I’m actually in the process of moving from the Aurora/Naperville area to Oak Park. As I’ll be moving closer to my job downtown while my boyfriend will be commuting the other way to Elmhurst.
Good luck with finding an apartment and good luck with the Metra Train – I’ve been doing it a year straight and I loathe every minute, ok, except for the fact that I read a book a week.
July 18th, 2006 @ 6:58 pm
Moving to Oak Park! You’re so lucky! You’ll love it, I think.
Read the “Oak Leaves” for your apartment search. There’s much better stuff than is available on the Web.
July 18th, 2006 @ 7:36 pm
What a jerk of a landlord. Wow.
July 18th, 2006 @ 8:09 pm
I don’t know that he was being a jerk — tone doesn’t come across well in emails.
I’d make the suggestion that you leave off the “young” part and just say you are a professional couple. There really is no reason (legal or otherwise) to state your age. This might help you get in to see more places. Also, you might not want to mention the cat until you meet the landlord in person. It’s been my experience that if a landlord really takes to you, he/she might make and exception to the “no pet” rule.
July 18th, 2006 @ 8:54 pm
HA! This is the second blog I’ve been reading where, months after reading, I find out the blogger is in OP, where I live. How bizarre, since that’s now how I found it.
Good luck with the apartment hunter. What an odd response from that landlord.
July 19th, 2006 @ 3:00 am
Do you have your heart set on Naperville? If you’re hoping for cheaper rent, you could try Wheaton or Glen Ellyn. There are a ton of folks who rent older homes to grad students near the Wheaton college campus. Most people move to Naperville because it has a wonderful school system. If you’re not planning on having kids any time soon, you should try looking in some of the suburbs that surround Naperville (e.g., Lisle, Woodridge, Downers Grove, etc.).
July 19th, 2006 @ 11:17 pm
The yuppie comment made me roll my eyes, but at least he was being honest. I could never understand why some landlords hate cats. They’re so clean, quiet and low-maintenance.
July 19th, 2006 @ 11:42 pm
I have owned my home for years, but in my younger days I would ask landlords if they minded my using them as a reference to potential landlords in the new town. They always said, “Sure, you’ve been a great renter, I wish you didn’t have to move.” I don’t really know if it was a factor or not, but I rented a house easily although I had two small children, two cats, and a dog.
July 20th, 2006 @ 11:47 am
Anonymous (3:09 pm) had some excellent advice. I rent out a space in my condo, and while I have been fortunate to not have to seek a new renter for many years now, I almost never rented to the guy based on his initial phone contact.
Tell any potential landlord as little as possible, but enough to get an initial meeting. Show up with contact information from a previous landlord (I wouldn’t want your current landlord – you may be a horrible tennant, and he may just want to get rid of you – an older landlord can be truthful), and volunteer for a credit check, and offer to pay an extra pet deposit. After meeting the landlord, if he likes you, and you like the place, he may be less likely to take you up on the offer of credit check, referral check, or even the extra deposit.
If that doesn’t work – find another place!
July 21st, 2006 @ 6:56 pm
Not only would I leave out the ‘young’ part, but I’d also limit the description of the relationship to ‘couple.’ Landlords want stability – I’d avoid the words ‘boyfriend’ and ‘girlfriend.’
July 23rd, 2006 @ 3:48 pm
I guess you won’t be buying this shirt then
http://tinyurl.com/fwwz4
July 24th, 2006 @ 9:34 pm
The reason I wrote about the cat was because his post initially said NO PETS in the description. I had to mention it upfront. I just got so frustrated with all the rentals saying NO PETS that I thought I’d e-mail somebody to see how stringent they were.
August 3rd, 2006 @ 4:04 am
I actually live in Naperville and have a townhouse that I’m thinking of renting out (no dogs). What service did you use to find the apartment?