Apartment Hunting

#218

We went house hunting in Seattle and Bellevue and visited a bunch of apartments. Here, apartment refers to a house within a building whereas 'house' refers to an independent house, usually a duplex.

Day 1, we visited 3 apartments - the first and the second were older homes, located slightly interior, thus were in quieter neighborhoods and had electric stovetops. We had done 'virtual tours' online, which allows us to walkthrough the house and see what each room would look like, so it was good to see it was similar in person too. Rent everywhere for 2b2b (here instead of 2BHK they say 2 bed 2 bath) was $3500 minimum with an additional $150-200 for utilities (water, electricity, internet, gas if applicable), per month. All kitchens here are modular, meaning they already come with a microwave oven, grill oven, refrigerator, stove top, and a dishwasher. And the apartments also come with a washer and dryer. These things would have to be bought if it were a house.

 

Apartment 3 was much newer - it was a high-rise apartment located near Amazon buildings and in the heart of SLU (South Lake Union). We visited the 19th floor to look at an empty apartment and the 30th floor for a model house. This place had 40 floors, with the 41st being a massive closed rooftop and an open skydeck, with a picturesque view. We liked this place the best - it had a gas stovetop (yay!) and looked the most spacious for a 2b2b with 987 sq.ft. It had the maximum amount of storage, especially in the kitchen, great set of amenities, and felt the most secure. 

One issue we saw in all the apartments here was lack of extra space to keep things, like a loft or an attic. That's one caveat of staying in an apartment vs an independent house, but the advantage is getting help for things needing repair, usually free of charge, done by the maintenance team, whereas in an independent house you are on your own for everything. All the apartments also mentioned that if we wanted to install a bidet (aka health faucet aka toilet spray), we would have to install it ourselves and bear damage costs, if any. 

In SLU, which is close to Downtown, parking charges seemed over the top at ~$250-300 per month! Luckily for us, we like walking and there are a lot of places nearby that are walkable, including the rental car place. A lot of known acquaintances also follow the same and do not own cars due to parking hassle.

Overall a new experience in terms of what to expect when looking for an apartment here. Visited 3 apartments across 2 cities in 1 day - 7-8k steps in total.