Ok, so, the good deed for the day was going across town to investigate an apartment. The friend in question is a woman, and wants to move back to Chicago. Presumably she wants to do a “Welcome Back” blog like me right? Well I don’t know what she’s got in mind, but I do know it’s hard to move to a different city without some DEPENDABLE friends in the target town. So I decided to my bit. See photos below.

Now this CAN be a crappy road to get on, if the person you’re helping doesn’t do good research and just starts picking places at random based on a specific criteria like “I can only afford this much,” or “I just HAVE to live in the cool part of town,” or “I can only live with such and such kind of people.” But if the out-of-towner is flexible, their funding is solid AND they at least look at a map to see the location of the places they want you to look at for them-it can be ok.

About of year ago, my cheating (now ex) girlfriend had to work during the day, and the place she wanted was gonna go quick, so I went and did one of these investigations on her behalf. So that experience, plus my own house shopping, has taught me how to whip out the camera in such a way as to not make people nervous (after all you’re just some prospective renter/buyer, but who really knows who you are). And if the landlord or whatever knows ahead of time you’re there as a surrogate it’s understood that you’re going to need some footage. The bedrooms, kitchen, bath, living are obvious. But I also get exterior shots, so people can see what the block looks like and get a sense of the area.

Listen you already know what kind of questions to ask when you’re renting a place, so I wont bore you with that. But I’ll tell you what I DO try to do; leave a good vibe. I try to be friendly and basically sale myself. My goal is to show up and not become a detriment to the person getting the place. So that if both parties decide to go forward and rent the place there wont be some lingering memory of “the friend who came and checked out the place but took a huge dump in the bathroom when he was here.” I also try not to reveal too much about my friend but gather as much as I can about the renter. So this way you don’t reveal anything your friend might not want revealed, but you’re gathering information for them. This isn’t spying for any odd purpose; you want your friend to have as much information as possible to make a good decision. So do a good thing, help out.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Tags: Chicago //