Apartment Hunting in Seattle (Tours + Tips)

hey guys it's zoe and i'm back with another informative video i also have my coffee here but not in a mason jar today as you can tell with the title today i'm doing a video all about my apartment hunt i'm already in my apartment right now but i wanted to do a whole video about the process of finding my apartment my experience was quite lengthy and probably a little bit different than other people's experience in this video i'm going to be talking about why i was looking for an apartment kind of like the housing market the places i was looking my negotiables non-negotiables what questions i asked through my apartment search the highlights of the apartments that i saw going through a few of them and showing the videos of the tours that i saw and then lastly ending with tips for apartment hunting i'm guessing the people that are watching this video are either in the process of finding an apartment soon or maybe they're just interested in like the housing market or maybe you're just a friend or family of mine that's just watching this video if you're in any of those categories then keep on watching so just to reintroduce myself my name is zoe i am 22 years old i just graduated with my bachelor's degree in college specifically cinema and tv arts i am originally from florida and then went to college in north carolina got a job in washington state and i moved across the country to washington i actually have a whole video of my first day of work and then i also have a video of me kind of traveling from east coast to west coast if you guys want to watch those i'll leave that in the description box down below so pretty much the reason why i was looking for an apartment was because i'm not originally from washington so i didn't have any family to live with um and i also just graduated college and i needed a place to live going into the housing market i wasn't really sure how this was going to go because i was moving to washington at the end of july my first day of work was july 27th so i wasn't sure how it was going to go especially during the coronavirus moving during covid is kind of a blessing and a curse at the same time you can do self-guided tours self-guided tours are a lot more big during this time period with self-guided tours you can't really ask the questions with the leasing agent with you in the apartment also a big thing since i moved at the end of july august is such a big time for people to move usually it's a time when people are moving for college or people who are getting a new job prices kind of go up but then also with covid prices were going down but a lot of people were looking for housing so with that it made finding an apartment kind of hard because every time i would find a place not every time but a lot of the times they would get snatched up super quickly because it's during the time period that everyone's finding housing it actually ended up taking me about a little less than a month and a half to find an apartment so what ended up happening was i know some people that i'll see on youtube and like other friends that will end up finding an apartment after like the first three apartments that they tour and then they move in in like a week and that just don't happen to me i don't know what kind of luck i have but so i actually ended up touring 19 places i did not think i would be touring that many but it happened i got to get really comfortable with the apartment surge um that scared me that was my that's my fridge so if anyone is from washington or from northwest washington the places i was looking to live were mill creek bellevue bothell linwood seattle edmonds shoreline and probably a few other places that i'm forgetting so going into my non-negotiables the first non-negotiable i had was living alone in college in the apartments that i lived in i had roommates and as much fun as having roommates is i just i just needed to live alone i just i couldn't do it anymore i did join a facebook group i think it was called like the greater seattle like housing facebook group if you want if you're interested in that but i just did not want to live with roommates another non-negotiable that i ended up deciding later is that i wanted a one bedroom at first i was looking at studio apartments and one bedrooms but then i realized that with the job that i'm doing i work from home probably about 40 of the time i didn't want my bedroom space to be the same space as my workspace i did look at some studios which you'll see in this video but then towards the end i realized like okay i need to actually have a one bedroom or open one bedroom apartment another non-negotiable i had was above the first floor i've never actually lived on the first floor of an apartment or like in college or anything like that but i just know i wouldn't want to with like the walking traffic i've always loved living on either the top floor or close to the top floor probably the biggest non-negotiable i had was safety especially since i was moving to an area where i didn't know anybody i didn't want to be scared to leave my apartment if i had to leave it at night even if you find a place that's super inexpensive um think about why it is super inexpensive and also the surroundings of the location another non-negotiable i had was a lot of light i can be in a dark room for a really long time and it definitely affects my mood i wanted a place where in the morning i could wake up naturally with the light also the thing about washington is i hear that it can get really depressing here so i didn't want to have a dark apartment on top of it being already dark when it's not summertime i have been warned about a seasonal depression here so i just did not want to go into a place that was super super dark and then the last non-negotiable i had was parking i didn't want a place where i would have to do street parking and then also when it came to parking it had to be like a reasonable cost i know in seattle some of the places i looked at the parking was like super expensive i know one place i saw was like 125 extra a month 125 dollars like that's a lot of money so going in to the negotiables that i had first one was washer and dryer in unit this one was kind of tip toeing from negotiables non-negotiables at first i was like oh this is such a non-negotiable i need laundry but like at the end of the day like it's not that big of a deal if you only have to walk like a few feet to go to your laundry room the second negotiable that i had was a deep sink i didn't want something where if i put like three dishes in it it looked like it was full i wanted something that was definitely deeper another one was a fitness center slash amenities a lot of people live in apartment complexes because of the amenities that they offer another one is a microwave some places don't come with microwaves but you can easily buy a microwave for like under fifty dollars also a dishwasher and then my last negotiable was to have a corner unit um if anything my dream would have been to have a top floor corner unit okay so when it came to actually touring apartments i came up with a list of questions that i asked each leasing agent the first place that i went to actually i was super unprepared and i didn't come up with any questions or bring a notebook or anything like that i kind of just went there even though i could have done it on my phone i just liked having a notebook it's actually right here literally everything about every place that i went to so i'm gonna try to go through these questions really quickly because i don't want to spend too much time on them how much is the rent what is the deposit is the deposit refundable um what is the application fee i also asked are there any utilities included if so what are they what is the tenant responsible for depending on what their answer was if utilities weren't included i like to ask um what is the range that people usually end up spending on utilities i asked what lease rents are available with the specific rent price following up with that question i would ask what is the terms if you were to break your lease and also when do you need to notify if you're not staying i feel like i am like kind of like a leasing agent like how do i know all this information like literally a month and a half ago i literally knew none of this so other questions i ask is are there additional parking costs um is it off street parking or is it street parking i asked where is the washer and dryer located how does trash work how does mail work and then also how do maintenance requests work oh oh forgot the last question that i asked depending on the location was i asked how long um have last tenants stayed this does vary because there was one building that i ended up touring that was completely new and obviously i couldn't ask that question because no one had lived there yet okay so this is probably the exciting part of the video um i have six different places why do i talk like that i have six different places that i want to show you guys um and like show you videos of them like i said i saw almost 20 different places so i did not want to show 20 different apartments in this video some of the videos that i have to show are quite shaky literally some of the videos i was literally like this trying to record so i don't know why it's super sticky but hopefully you still enjoy the footage so the first place that i ended up touring was hyde park in bellevue bellevue was a place that i would have really wanted to live because it is super super nice there this was also since this was the first place that i saw if you remember me saying before that the first place i saw i was like completely unprepared for um so i walked into the place literally like i'm here to tour an apartment and it was just it was really comical if you were there with me because i probably had like no idea what i was doing the place that i ended up seeing in there it was a studio apartment but like i said i didn't know i wanted a studio until probably about 75 into my apartment search but with this studio it had a lot of light inside of it um it was probably i think on like the fourth or the sixth floor it was a really really nice apartment complex i wouldn't even consider an apartment complex it literally seemed like it was a hotel the gym there was like better than most gym locations i would definitely consider this a luxury apartment the next place i saw was a private unit in linwood it was in an apartment complex but it was privately owned but i don't name i don't know the name of the exact apartment complex this one was a one bedroom apartment um but it was a first floor unit i knew it was a first floor unit before going to tour it but i still just wanted to see it because it was super close to my work it did have a designated parking spot the designated parking spot was right in front of the apartment but if you can see by the footage it was very dark and there's a lot of marks on the wall and the bedroom was super super dark the laundry wasn't in the unit and it was also very just old and like not good another place that i went to was keeler's corner in linwood this place i actually started the application for it but that i didn't end up finishing it it was one bedroom it was on the second of two floors the parking was first come first served parking so pretty much open parking i loved it it was very open very bright also the laundry was a little bit outdated i've never actually seen a washer or dryer like that before and also a really nice sized balcony too the only thing was that wasn't the exact apartment that i was looking at that one was the updated version and i think the one reason why i didn't end up signing this lease was because with this department complex the utilities would be shared with everybody in the property which no let's say this wouldn't actually happen but if i didn't use any electricity that month i would still have an electricity bill because of the other people and what they use for electricity so that was kind of the main reason why i didn't end up doing that one okay this place i really wanted to show just because i thought it was super unique i saw a private studio and why am i so close to the camera i saw a private studio in bothell and this one was super interesting i saw it on facebook marketplace which made me want to see it um it's like completely all wooded and even though it's a studio the bedroom was still blocked off by a wall i wouldn't even consider an apartment i wouldn't consider it a house it was in a neighborhood behind someone's house the main thing was the lady that was showing me the apartment who would have been the landlord had like no idea what she was talking about just like has no one ever asked me these questions before and also i didn't like how the apartment was super messy when i saw it there was a little bit of like mold outside of the apartment area um which wasn't good and also the laundry was outside so if it was raining which people talk about it like raining all the time here that wouldn't be good to do laundry but a good thing about this apartment was you could do at least month to month so technically if i didn't like it the first month i could peace out and like go somewhere else the next place i saw was in shoreline um this one was called postmarked and or not postmarked it was called postmark and i'm telling you i missed out on this one i really did i should have just signed it right then and there this was a new apartment complex like brand new as in like no one had lived there yet i think it was opening up like two weeks after i saw it um so they were pre-leasing at this time and i loved it and i didn't sign it and it got taken this one was called an open one bedroom so it wasn't a studio but it wasn't like a full one bedroom but i just loved it oh my gosh the parking was 75 dollars a month which is insane but the price would have still been in my budget if i were to have done the 75 a month for parking and the parking was garage parking too they also had a hookup for an ac it had a really nice walk-in closet it has soft closed not cabinets it had if you can see in the video an exposed like wood ceiling thing i feel like people watching this would have been like zoe why didn't you sign it and i don't know when i realized i wanted it it was probably about like three or four days later and the apartment was gone already and the prices went extremely up okay this is like future zoe editing this video and i just find it so funny how passionate i am about this apartment like i should have just gotten it um yeah i just really wanted to insert that in because you can tell like in my voice how happy i was about it but you live and you learn so let's continue and then the next one this is the last one i'm gonna show you guys and this one this is also one that i don't think i'll ever stop thinking about and not become a little angry when i think about it as well okay like i actually cried over this i'm not even kidding because i'm psycho this was a condo in bothell i highly recommend if you're looking for apartments or housing like try to look into condos more this condo was amazing the thing about the last place was i didn't even put in an application or anything this one i put in an application and i didn't get it but the reason why i didn't get it is just ridiculous this was a top floor corner unit so there's a third floor on the corner the bedroom was in a location where it wasn't um sharing a wall with anybody which is like literally the best thing you can even ask for and get this water sewage and gas were all included in the rent like what the only thing i have to pay for on my own was electricity and internet i also loved how the bedroom had two shades so it had i think it was either like a white or a cream wall and then it had this like blue wall as well so i liked that aspect of it honestly there was no cons absolutely no cons the balcony was really nice it was a quiet nice area i loved the location of it and it was amazing like absolutely the apartment that i wanted and when i saw this one i'm like okay this is it this is the apartment i want this one and i told the guy as i was leaving i'm like okay i want this apartment what do i have to do and he handed me the application he's like just text me um this application tonight and we can go ahead and get this stuff rolling and i was super happy i like called my dad after i'm like just raving about this place i loved it so much and it was just like a best way to end my evening because i went to go see it after work here's the t i remember when i was leaving the place though there was someone that was coming to see the apartment right after me so oh sorry my phone went off i literally rushed home filled it out sent it to him and we were like texting that night about it and like he did like my credit score and occupation all of that stuff like a normal application would do and he was like okay i'll let you know tomorrow and everything like that so i woke up the next morning go to work thinking like oh my gosh i have a place to live i'm excited for this and then he texts me and he's like i'm sorry i ended up going with the people after you that saw the apartment and i'm not even kidding you i actually shed a tear also the reason why i was mad was because i'm like why didn't i get it i qualified for it like there is obviously a lot of apartments most departments actually have like an income um that you need to meet to be able to even get the apartment um or else you would need like a co-signer or yeah a cosigner or a guarantor or something so that income i actually made the income and didn't need anyone to sign like on top of me or anything i made it it was perfect i even made above it which was good um but the reason he said that he didn't take me was because that the people that were also applied made more money than me a month which really doesn't make any sense because i put my application in first which he told me put the application in first and at the end of the day if i made the money that was required i should have gone the apartment just because i make lower than somebody else that doesn't mean that that person would not pay their rent more than me i'm not even kidding i think i went into like shock for i think like three or four days like i was just pissed you're probably thinking like oh well why don't you just like go to that apartment and find another one since it was a condo you can't really find another person that's selling in there unless you know them i'm still sad about that and if you can't tell but those are the apartments that i wanted to share with you guys obviously i didn't share the one that i'm currently living in right now because i want to do like a whole like reveal of that um which will be after this video like in a different video but to end this off i want to talk about just like three tips for apartment hunting um first one is if you can't tell kind of the theme of this video if you find an apartment that you like jump on it put the holding fee down pay the application fee just freaking do it granted if you like an apartment and it's a good price someone else is also looking at that apartment and also thinks it's a good price and they're probably putting in an application so do whatever you can to to solidify the deal another um tip i have is to look at apartment reviews online and take most of them pretty seriously there was a few places that i saw that i didn't mention this video where i absolutely loved it but then i went on their just like reviews on google and their scores were just like down the train like and i'm not talking about just like one or two people had bad experiences it was like a bunch of people had bad experiences and then the last tip that i have for this video is get a second opinion from either like a friend or family members um so my dad was kind of the person that i was talking to about all the apartments and i would show him videos and everything and since he's way older than me and has lived in a lot more places than me he kind of knows what to look for not to look for an apartment so um he was definitely a really good guide i definitely recommend getting somebody that has lived in an apartment before their opinion on things things that they like about anything that they don't like about it to see it from someone else's perspective i definitely want to do another video talking about apartment hunting tips because i feel like i'm such a pro at it now so that was everything in this video i know it was super long but honestly i enjoyed filming it it was very informative i think specifically if you're from washington if you're not from washington you can still literally take all of these tips and apply it to anywhere that you live my next video will be my moving vlog i don't want to make like a bunch of different moving vlogs i'd rather just have one big moving vlog and as you can see i don't have any furniture right now so um it's gonna be another week or two before i actually have this place furnished but that video will be coming eventually so if you are interested in that i really recommend subscribing to this channel also if you like this video please give it a thumbs up and it really helps me out i am really bad at making youtube videos but i'm going to try to do better at it because i just i don't have the time but then i also have so much time to do at the same time but yeah leave a comment down below if you have any questions about apartment hunting or your opinions on apartment hunting your experiences i love to kind of hear other people's um ideas and thoughts in their head and yeah i hope you enjoyed i'll talk to you guys in my next video bye guys

Channel: zoiexbeauty

Views: 5,892

Rating: 4.9024391 out of 5

Keywords: zoiexbeauty, basicallyzoie, makeup, beauty, apartment, apartment hunting, apartment shopping, apartment tour, post grad, moving, moving vlog, apartment vlog, seattle wa, move with me, move with me to seattle, seattle apartment tour

Id: QD8Cked_Szs

Length: 23min 23sec (1403 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 19 2020