What frustrated me about my experience. (Washington: hardwood floors, apartment, leasing agent)

[artsandcraftsman]

"The apartment unit has hardwood floors throughout"

You show up and there's carpet, not hardwood. This sucks because you frequently paint with acrylic and oil, and were hoping to be able to wipe up paint splatter with a wet cloth, instead of staining the white carpet in your rental.

"The bathroom has a shower stall with a frameless glass door"

You show up and find a tub that requires a shower curtain, and not a shower stall with a glass door.

"The unit comes equipped with an over-the-range Microwave."

You show up and there's no microwave in the apartment.

"The living room is 10x10," and the floor plans you were provided confirm this.

You show up and discover that the living room is actually 8x10, not 10x10. Minor detail, right?

"Similar to the model you toured, and confirmed by the floor plan we provided, your unit will have two closets: one in the bedroom, and the other, a coat closet, in the foyer."

Just kidding! Since your apartment is equipped with a tub instead of the shower that you were promised, there was no room to add the second (coat) closet. Hope you weren't planning to use that second closet as an extra storage space!

Never again.

[stateofnature]

Be happy you didn't sign a lease, OP.

This is a perfect example of why no one should EVER sign a lease without physically visiting a place first. I am amazed by the number of people who come onto this forum and say something to the effect of "don't have time/money to go out and visit the apartment, is the area ok?" They're taking a massive gamble.
If you think you can't afford to go visit before you move, I'd argue you can't afford not to.

I also saw this same phenomenon when I was trying to find a new roommate on craigslist. I received literally a dozen emails from people who said they were ready to sign up just on the basis of pictures alone... without ever have seen the place or met their new roommates! A lot of these emails were from single young women who were willing to move in with two strange (to them) men.

Some people just have no common sense.

[confusedasusual]

It sounds as though you are mainly looking at big corporate buildings with the old bait and switch floorplan routine. Try to check out some privately owned or smaller managment company buildings. These may take a bit more legwork to locate as they often don't have the marketing budgets to advertise everywhere. A cruise through your neighborhoods of choice may be more fruitful than appointments with Buzzuto-managed midrises.

I went through the same thing a few years ago when I wanted to upgrade my place. I thought that getting the granite counters and roofdeck was a necessity and I checked out a lot of buildings with tons of amenities listed. Beware of add on "amenities fees", "move in fees", gym fees, parking fees, pet fees, etc. The deposits may be low, but only because you end up paying for lots of add ons. I absolutely wanted a nice bathroom with a tub (preferably jetted) and was told by many places it was available, but visited to find out that it wasn't, or would be in 60 days, or used to be, etc. These buildings depend on high turnover to raise the rent-- read reviews online and you will see that exorbitant rent hikes often happen upon lease renewals. Ask the leasing agents and they will be vague.

I ended up leasing a condo from a private owner on Craiglist which ad everything I wanted, was a few hundred dollars per month cheaper than smaller places in the "communities" I had considered, and didn't have a ton of extra charges for using the common spaces in the building.

[killabunnies]

Originally Posted by confusedasusual

I ended up leasing a condo from a private owner on Craiglist which ad everything I wanted, was a few hundred dollars per month cheaper than smaller places in the "communities" I had considered, and didn't have a ton of extra charges for using the common spaces in the building.

^This.

I did the same thing and it is awesome. My owner pays the HOA fees so basically I get all the "joys" of living in the condo community without the annoying parts (I even attend our HOA meetings since what happens here affects me).

I am allowed to do whatever I want to my place like change out the light fixtures or paint and the owner doesn't care as she knows I take good care of the place. The ONE time I had a problem (batteries died on the digital thermostat they installed for me before I moved in), the owner's hubby offered to drive all the way over to change them for me at 9pm.

I have a couple cats and don't pay extra for them (the place on H St I looked at wanted a $500 deposit just for the one old cat I had at the time - how much damage can a geriatric cat do to an apartment?!) and when I picked up a kitten at WHS, all I had to do was text the owner and say "hey, I'm grabbing a kitten, Washington Humane might call you to make sure it's OK..." She immediately texted back with "that's cool!"... she'll text me just to see how I'm doing and we text smack talk about the drama queen in my building. You don't get that from a big management company.

The ad she posted on CL did not include pictures but when I came to look at the place, it was even better than what she described in the ad. The granite counters were stunning (pre-war building renovated a few years back), my hardwood floors are AWESOME, there's recessed lighting throughout and I even have a Jacuzzi tub. Come on, you can't beat that.

My lease is up in two months but I am definitely signing another for at least a year and may even buy the unit from her when the market starts looking up a bit and she's no longer underwater.

If you can find a condo owner willing to lease to you, you're golden.

[movinghere]

Same as above! I also rent a condo from an individual owner, and it has been great. No drama, no hidden fees, etc. Since the landlord owns the place (and used to live in it until she had a baby and moved to a detached house), she cares about it so she wants to keep it in good condition. Also in the 3 years I've lived there, I've only had 1 rent increase (which was reasonable), rather than a large increase every year. I've found that when you rent from an individual owner, they are more likely to want you to stay (assuming you take good care of the place), rather than trying to flip the apartment over with a huge rent increase every year.

Also I would be very hesitant to rent from a place that doesn't let you see the actual unit you'll be living in prior to signing a lease. While there are often legitimate reasons for this (don't want to disturb current tenant if unit is still occupied etc) I would be concerned since I've heard that often the display unit is a particularly nice unit, and the one you're moving into might not be as nice.

[Tiger Beer]

That's universal. No matter where on Planet Earth you try to rent an apartment, you should always visit it first.

Certainly not unique to Washington DC.