Renting in St. Louis Part 1

Renting an apartment can be stressful. Worries over the condition of the building, the location, safety vs. cost... it can be a real nightmare. The following is the true, and unfolding story of two young adults and their adventures in apartment hunting in St. Louis.

A good friend (the girlfriend of a childhood friend) just moved to St. Louis (from Israel) to begin her Masters in Social Work at Washington University (the top ranked program in the country).

Her boyfriend has been serving in the Israel Defense Forces for the past two years, but was able to get a few weeks off, during which they visited St. Louis and looked at apartments.

Knowing that she would be at Wash U, they scouted the usual locales, University City, Clayton, Richmond Heights, the Central West End, etc. They probably looked at 15 or 20 places and were growing disheartened that nothing looked good enough to them.

Finally, they day before they were going to leave, I got a call while at work from my ecstatic friends indicating they had found the perfect place.

I joined them to look it over and to read through the lease as a third pair of eyes. The place was pretty fantastic. Located at Maryland and Newstead, the large two bedroom has a fantastic open dining/living space in a building with a pool.

Not only had they found a place they were excited about, they had also managed to get it at a price under market value by signing a two-year lease.

But the joy would be short lived. Tune into tomorrow to hear what happened.