1). Give a 60 day notice to our current property management by Friday.
2). Start looking for a new home.
Then we realized that the next few weekends are already packed full, so we'd better start setting up some times to look at new apartments either in the evenings or this weekend. I'd been keeping my eyes open for rental properties for a while now, so we had already driven through a couple of areas that we knew would be closer for Chris's commute. We had already decided to stick with an apartment for now. Rental houses all seemed to be a lot more expensive. We figured our money would work better for us if we saved by doing apartment style living for a bit longer.
One unit happened to come open in the right area with the management group we've rented from for a while, until our management changed about two months ago. We went to see the place Tuesday since Chris was off for election day. We would have had to move about three or four weeks earlier than we wanted. A deposit would only hold it for us for one month, so we would have been paying rent in two places for an entire month. Despite it being an older building with older appliances and dinged up linoleum in the kitchen, we liked it. It was a lot bigger and had two bathrooms. I was slow with the decision, but after going to look at it again after work on Tuesday night, I was ready to put down a deposit. Unfortunately, by the time I called back the next morning to tell them that I would be dropping by with our rental application and deposit on my lunch hour, they had already lease it to someone else. The next unit they had in that area wouldn't come open until April. I was pretty disappointed, but then I thought, maybe someone else needed it right now. We would have just been holding it empty for a month. I had no idea our opportunity would be so limited. I guess it's because people don't like to move around Christmastime.
Luckily, I remembered that another management company had mentioned that they had a unit in the same area. They just weren't sure if the availability would work for us since their current tenants weren't leaving until January 1st and they needed time to get it ready for the next tenant. I called them back to see which one it was and when they thought they could get the next renters in by. They said the timeline would be tight, especially due to the New Year holiday but that they thought they could get us in a couple days before January 9th. I went on my own to look at it Thursday afternoon. It was exactly the same as the one we had looked at on Tuesday. It was just one building over. The appliances and floors were in much better shape. I decided that was it, and handed over my money before they could lease it to someone else! Giving a 60 day notice without having something else lined up just wasn't going to work for me. Despite the fact that the unit is a little bit older than where we live now, I think we're going to like living there.
We'll be in one of the 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom townhouses in Covington Station. We'll have 300 more square feet than we have now. Rent will be $50 more per month. I'll be about five minutes closer to work. The best part and biggest reason for the move is that we are cutting off over 14 miles from Chris's commute. That's close to 30 miles per day. Instead of a 55-60 minute drive, it will be 45-50 minutes. It's still long, but it shouldn't be as bad. We'll be just one mile from the Natcher Parkway. The neighborhood seems nicer than many of our other options, so I am happy with it. We move in January 7.
Hopefully we'll be buying our next home, but it will take us a while to save that down payment. We're still on baby step three. For now, we'll enjoy not having to mow.
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