Ode to the United States way of renting

Lots to update on since I last wrote a long time ago. First of all, I have a job! I am starting work in Boston this Monday, as in tomorrow, and I'm very excited. I had a total of two interviews with this company before I was given the job. It was the first set of interviews I've had since returning, as well, so that was pretty awesome!

But after receiving a job in a new city comes the frustration of apartment searching. Not only that, but I am currently living in Southern New Hampshire with my parents and will be commuting to work (via train thank god) until I find a place. The commute, even though I won't be driving the whole way there, consists of driving to the commuter rail station about a half hour from my house, taking the commuter rail for 50 minutes, then catching a subway to my actual stop at work. All in all, including leaving the house ridiculously early so that I'm not late on my first day, it equals about 2.5 hours of commuting.

Now, my apartment search has been easy in the sense that I'm able to go look at places. I'm using craigslist room/shares search because one: I can't afford to live alone and two: I don't know anyone here and it might be nice to have a roommate around every so often. The search has been hard in that I don't know much about the city and am also used to living close to the center of everything (thanks for that Spain) so I'm a bit picky. I want a place that is, if nothing else, close to a coffee shop. Well I shouldn't say if nothing else...that's on the list of things I want but don't need. What I need is someone who is willing to have a pet rabbit in their apartment and perhaps a place that will let me rent a parking space.

My point with this post is not to go into my own pickiness but to talk about the differences between renting in the US and renting in Spain. I have no idea how it is anywhere else in Europe, but in Spain, in order to rent (and if you have no contacts in the area) you must go to an agency. This is similar to rental companies in the US in that they have a certain number of apartments to show you. However, it is different because the company does not own the apartment; they are providing services to the owner of the apartment in exchange for money on both end of the contract. That is, the rentee has to pay about half a month's rent to the company and so does the renter. Another problem is that there are many many many many agencies. When my boyfriend and I were over there looking for places, we were particular in that we wanted a one or two bedroom apartment. That was it. That was our only particular. And they came up with only a few apartments to show us. Stereotypes and unfairness towards foreigners also has to come into play here, but the main point is that there were not many to look at.

Really it wasn't a bad experience although we did not like having to go through an agency. This is something I have to remember as I'm searching for apartments now, because it really has been pretty easy. Even if I were to avoid craigslist and contact apartment agencies I think it would going as well.

Plus it's nice understanding what the landlord is saying now.