House Hunters: Omaha Edition

House Hunters: Omaha Edition
Thank you guys so much for all the love on yesterday's post. It was such an amazing experience getting to be a part of a campaign that is all about honesty, acceptance, communication, and empowerment. As a future marketer I hope to be able to work on campaigns with similar goals. This post was supposed to go up last night, but I was so tired after work I fell asleep on the couch and woke up at 3am. ;p So a late morning posting it is! Josh and I had so much fun exploring Omaha searching for apartments. The thing that made this trip so easy was that we did our research ahead of time. We both looked around online to find some viable options, Josh got in touch with a realtor through his work, and we contacted all the places we were interested in viewing. If we were apartment hunting in State College we would be behind the game right now, as everyone is already leased for next summer. In Omaha residents are only required to give 30 days notice so most landlords don't yet know what units will be available for the summer. By contacting them weeks in advance of our trip the landlords were able to contact residents that they thought might be leaving. Because of this we were able to tour the exact units we would be able to rent. Josh was amazing and put together a whole itinerary of what apartments we were going to see on what days. We probably had about ten apartments on the list, though our top choices we saw in our first two days so that we could compare all the other units to them.  The first thing we realized about Omaha when we started looking was that you get so much more for your money than you do on the East Coast. Apartments are renovated, they have elevators, central air, dishwashers, washers and dryers in the units, parking garages, small fitness centers, and usually a common area to have parties. I was laughing thinking about how much we would be paying for all that in NYC. We wanted to be really smart with renting our first place and not go above our means. We'd like to live in the heart of the city for about five years before looking to buy a house and move to the suburbs. We really want to get the city experience. The funny thing is that it seems like more people live in the suburbs in Omaha than the city. The suburbs also have most of the good shopping areas and grocery stores. (Trader Joes, Whole Foods, Lululemon and J.Crew!) Thankfully everything is only about a twenty-minute drive away from each other between the suburbs and downtown. Since saving for a house is one of our big long-term goals we read up on what a responsible amount to spend on monthly rent is. From what we could garner if a person can they should try to spend no more than 30% of their monthly income on an apartment. Since I am moving to Omaha unemployed we're basing that percentage off Josh's income. Hopefully I'll be able to find a job quickly and then we'll be really under that number. One of the things that affected our apartment hunt is the fact that we're moving really far away from all of our family and friends. We want to entice them to visit and also have a space where Josh can do work outside of his office. This led us to look for two bedroom apartments. If we were looking for one bedroom apartments we would have been able to tour almost anything in the downtown area, but adding that second bedroom bumped a few options off our list. In the end it came down to all the discussions you see on HGTV about what we prioritize more. Did we want to be right in the heart of all the city action? Did we want a heated-covered parking garage directly attached to the building? Did we want more space? Did we want access to a fitness center? (One place we looked at had a half court basketball court in the gym!) Did we care about what floor we were on? Did we care about all stainless steel appliances and granite counter tops? Did we feel safe in the neighborhood? In the end we feel we found the perfect apartment for us. There were a few things it didn't have that other apartments did but we are so happy with the the property itself, the landlord, the space and how we feel when we are there. We are so excited to spend the next five-ish years of our lives here. Without going into too many personal details about the place we found a two-bedroom two-bath place that had all the amenities we were looking for in an apartment. The appliances aren't as fancy as some of the other apartments we looked at, and the bathrooms don't have some of the spa-like fixtures other apartments did but it is a beautiful apartment with tons of space. Josh and I in front of our new apartment! We took pictures of the inside to share with friends and family and I thought it would be fun to share some here as well. The view from the front hallway. There's some closets here for coats. It also attaches to the kitchen. And the washer and dryer. We are so happy we found a place that has this. The landlord told us even though they're stacked they are full size. I could really care less, I just see how much money Josh spends using his current apartment's laundry room and know this is going to be a huge convenience that will save us a ton of money. Bathroom number one. Bedroom number one. I am very bad at photographing rooms. There is a lot more to this room than we see. I think I just focused on the pretty bedding. ;p This one has a nice size closet that Josh and I will be filling with stuff when we run out of room in ours. The living room area. And the dining room area. I love this kitchen. Behind the breakfast bar there's a lower level of counter space that has the sink and dishwasher. I love how welcoming this kitchen is. I'm bummed about going from a gas stove to electric but realize it really is the safest option in an apartment. Part of bathroom two. This one is attached to our bedroom's closet. I like that this one has a shower while the other one has a full bath. Part of our bedroom. And our closet. The girl who's living there now has bookshelves on the other wall of her room instead of her dresser. We're planning on putting bookshelves in the second bedroom/office and putting our dresser in the bedroom to give us more closet space. We're so in love with the apartment. It just feels like we can make it our own. The residents also seem really nice. All the doorways have welcome mats! Aside from the awesome apartment the building also comes with rooftop patios with grills and screen projectors, and a huge community room with a full kitchen that residents can use for parties. We were also pretty stoked it has this: The machines all face huge floor to ceiling windows that overlook the city. (The girl was so sweet and posed for a picture!) Now I just need to find somewhere to take Zumba and Spin classes and I'm set! And that was our apartment hunt! I'm so excited to share pictures with you guys when we have our stuff moved in and the place all decorated. I had the best time doing this with Josh and was so happy we found the place we were looking for. I feel so lucky that we have the same values and look for the same things in an apartment and a lifestyle. Hopefully this post was helpful in showing a real account of one couple's apartment hunt. I know I wish I had more things to read like this when we started the search online months ago. Now I just need to graduate, get married, move, buy a car, and find a job! This is a busy year! Question of the Day: What was your first apartment/house shopping experience like? Were you able to find almost everything on your wish list? We had to sacrifice the perfect location (although it's really close) and a heated parking garage (we still have a covered garage, it's just not heated). For everything we gained though, we think we really lucked out.

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