So, as reported last week, Lea and I returned to the United States and have settled back into our old lives. Easy-peasy, right? Heh. No.
In truth, the “settling” is still going on, though our activity has slowed down from its initial frenetic pace to something more manageable. There’s still much that’s up in the air and uncertain, but we’ve got the basic necessities covered and a few of the comforts as well. There are still some anxieties remaining re: health insurance and jobs, but that will shake out in time.
I mentioned last week that we arranged for some elements of our return while still overseas and I promised to go into a little more detail for the benefit of those who might try a similar long-term travel stunt. This article assumes that even if you’d like to own a home upon your return, your first place of residence is going to be an apartment because no way can anyone house-hunt while backpacking on another continent. Some of the issues I mention may only apply in the state of Georgia, but could also crop up elsewhere. So here goes:
- Save enough money not just for your trip, but to live for an extended period without a job upon your return.
This should go without saying, but in addition to being a common sense survival strategy, it will also affect your housing search. In order to rent an apartment, you nearly always have to prove that you have income before they’ll let you sign a lease. Some backpackers earn money while traveling to pay for their next hostel, we had no income and no guarantee that we would at the time of our return. Some apartment complexes will allow you to rent if you can show liquid assets in lieu of a steady paycheck. Some will not – this ended up crossing one of our choices off the list. Thankfully, at least two of the places we liked would allow us to apply as long as we had a certain amount of money available in the bank or other liquid financial products. We did and could prove it; this was the basis upon which we were able to rent from afar.
- Do research on housing options before leaving the country.
If you’re planning to leave everything behind to travel long term, but still intend to come back, take time to look at apartment complexes before setting off for another hemisphere.
We did so, but to be fair we were looking for places to move because we hated what our current complex was turning into. (We hadn’t yet committed to the overseas trip and were considering staying longer in Atlanta.) However, this early scouting served us well – once the date of our return approached, we already had a list of apartment complexes where we would be willing to live.
- Know when to start looking, and apply for apartments as early as possible.
Working from our list, we watched for available units well in advance of our expected return date. Since apartments in Atlanta require tenants to give 60 days’ notice before moving out, 60 days was the target period in which available units would appear on the market. Our goal was to snatch a good one, sight unseen, before anyone else snapped it up. This required a leap of faith – we’ve never been comfortable renting without seeing what we were getting. In this case, all we had to go on were online floor plans and our memories of the “model units” that we toured over a year earlier.
The next step was to communicate with the leasing staff from 4,415 miles away (the distance from Atlanta to Salvador, where we officially started the process). You can fill out many apartment applications online, given a decent internet connection (which you can’t take for granted). We ran into an extra roadblock when we discovered that our #1 choice of apartment homes was changing management companies right when we were trying to apply. All of their application software was down, so we called the complex’s leasing office and, over a scratchy international phone connection, explained our situation, had the paper forms sent to us electronically, filled them out by hand, then scanned and emailed them back to Atlanta. This back-and-forth with the leasing staff worked, eventually, though the difficulties drew the process out for several weeks (another good reason to start early).
- Read every word of the lease. Leave your Escape Hatch open.
When we finally received the lease it was Easter weekend and in Salento, Colombia our Internet was painfully slow to nonexistent. During one of the windows when we could access the lease, we pored over it clause-by-clause. While doing this, we discovered that there was no provision for early termination by the tenant. In fact, with two specific exceptions that wouldn’t apply to us, early termination of the lease was expressly forbidden.
This was a deal-breaker. We’ve had to exercise an early termination clause in the past (when we’d moved into an apartment that turned out to be a Roach Motel) but we also needed the option because of many other scenarios we could imagine. Sad, angry, and frustrated, we sent notice to the apartment complex that we couldn’t sign, were backing out of the deal, thanks for their assistance, have a nice day, then started the whole process over with the next apartment complex down our list.
Guess what? After applying at Apartment Complex #2 and receiving their electronic lease, it had the exact same No Early Termination clause – in fact, in this case it was worded even more strongly. Apparently this is now a thing in Atlanta, as set forth by the Georgia Apartment Association. Research that I’d done the one time we did have to terminate a lease revealed that the State of Georgia has the weakest renter protection laws in the country. I’ve no doubt that groups like the GA Apartment Association have a hand in keeping it that way.
Anyway, rant aside, both complexes came back to us with amended policies that set terms that would allow us to break our lease early. We said “thanks” and asked them both if they would insert these polices into the legal documents that we would sign. Apartment Complex #2 said No – the early termination option was only a “courtesy.” Apartment Complex #1 said Yes – they were happy to add the early termination addendum to the packet of documents that we and the leasing agent would sign.
Guess who we went with? Once we had a signed lease we were finally able to set up utilities and other necessities. This was a tiny bit of a hassle but not overly so.
- Renters Insurance and Utilities
Getting Renters Insurance was no problem at all. While in Medellín, over the space of a few hours. I was able to get online quotes from five or six companies, pick one, and pay for it.
Electricity was a little trickier because Georgia Power will not let you create or log into an account from an IP address outside the U.S. (We learned this way back in Ecuador when we tried to pay the last power bill for our old apartment.) To set up new service I had to bite the bullet and make an international call to the power company.
Thankfully for this apartment we didn’t have to set up water, sewer, or gas, though it would have been a similar process – try to do it online first, then use the phone as a last resort. The only hiccup, and one we didn’t solve until we actually moved in, was setting up Internet access. We wanted to go with Google Fiber instead of Cursed Comcast, but the brain surgeon who rented our apartment before us never turned off their account and we had to prove to Google that yes, we lived there now.
- Enter freely and of your own will.
So at last, on our first day back in the States, with a check for the first month’s rent and butterflies in our stomach (because what if the apartment was horrible?) we arrived at our new home and picked up the keys.
And the place is fantastic. It’s much more spacious than we imagined from looking at floor plans. There’s plenty of room for our belongings and space left over to walk around without feeling cramped. After many years of sharing a single sink, we now have two in our bathroom. We have lots of windows and natural light galore, so much that Lea’s sewing blackout curtains for our bedroom.
The place isn’t perfect. When we took possession, for example, one of the closet doors was missing (oops) and we’re still having trouble getting maintenance to fix a dripping shower head and leaky bit of caulk. During Prime Time every night, some interesting characters make a lot of noise outside the convenience store several floors below. But for the most part, the place is wonderful and with a few added touches it will truly be a home.
P.S.
In the next post, the cloud to our silver lining: Trying to get Health Insurance upon our return. How dare we?
To be continued.