Eric's California Apartment Hunt

The day after the job interview, I drove around Cupertino and visited eleven apartment complexes. The prices here shocked me; decent two-bedroom apartments are more than $1100/month, most around $1300/month, and the nicer places were $1700/month and up. Almost none of the cheaper places suited my needs, and the few that did did not "feel" right.

Well, it turns out Cupertino is the most expensive area in the immediate vicinity, largely due to a school system with a great reputation. Not only will a good school system do me little good, but the reputation may be largely due to Asian students doing very well rather than the quality of the teaching. So, I had to dismiss all my Cupertino research and look outside the town. Also, when Apple's job offer came through, the salary included some adjustment for the outrageous cost of living here, but not enough to compensate for the cost of Cupertino's nicer apartments.

Searching on the web, mostly through ApartmentGuide.com revealed a number of candidates that were cheaper, sizeable, and possibly well located relative to Apple. The latter was hard to tell, since I did not know what roads jam during rush hours. After price, size, and location, I considered crime rate, guest parking, amenities, appearance, and a few other factors, although some of these are hard to judge with information available on the net. I called several places to send me additional information.

Apple's relocation package includes some services of a local real-estate agent. I discussed my apartment needs and desires with her and coordinated some apartments we would visit. The Wednesday after I arrived in California, I visited some of my top candidates and learned about some new ones. Thursday morning, I visited the new ones. Thursday afternoon, the real-estate agent and I visited five or six candidates.

After all that, I had settled on one place, Newport, which had a great price and was a nice size and had a floorplan that really worked for me. The neighborhood was decent. Unfortunately, it was a bit far from Apple—only eight miles, but the commute involves two highways with the potential to clog. Also, the building quality was not that great, but I could live with that. As Thursday ended, I was planning to do some final checks in the morning and commit to Newport if things panned out.

While reviewing my records Thursday night, I compared each candidate to Newport and dismissed all but two, one that I had visited and not disliked but could not remember correctly (I had been to two dozen apartment complexes!), and one that I had not visited, Oak Pointe. So one of my final checks was to visit Oak Pointe.

In the morning, I drove to Oak Pointe. They did not have a suitable unit available. However, I had parked down the street and walked past a couple of apartment complexes to get to Oak Pointe, so I stopped in at those. Peartree had a great apartment—just a little smaller than Newport, a little more expensive, and not including utilities. However, it is half as far from Apple, and the grounds and interior are nicer.

I drove to the other place I needed to revisit and then to Newport for my final checks there. I decided the Newport kitchen was not that great. Also, I was able to contrast the drive to Peartree with the drive to Newport (the real estate agent drove the first time). The Peartree commute has lots of traffic lights and might get bogged down, but it is still likely to be more pleasant than a highway commute, especially if the latter ever gets jammed. Plus biking from the Peartree is easier, of course. Plus the road to the Peartree offers plenty of opportunities to stop for things on the way home—groceries, books, et cetera.

Then I went back to my temporary apartment to research Peartree on the net. They have complaints from tenants, like all places do, but the complaints seemed reasonable. After lunch, I went back out. The Peartree agent was out of the office for a while, so I visited a sister property of the Peartree, just in case they had more for less. I headed back to the Peartree and even stopped along the way to check a couple of places even closer to Apple.

At the Peartree, I measured the bedrooms. The master bedroom is a foot longer than their floorplan shows. It is about the same as my bedroom in New Hampshire was. So things should fit in there. And I think the Peartree kitchen is better than the Newport kitchen, although neither is what I would really like.

Finally, I put a deposit down at the Peartree and agreed to sign a lease. There is a unit coming available September 10, which I would move into September 11, and there was a chance a corner unit would be available.

Peartree is in Sunnyvale. Oddly, the real estate agent mentioned she eliminated Sunnyvale from consideration because it would take too long to get to Apple. I do not know what she was thinking; maybe parts of Sunnyvale are inaccessible, although I would not think so, but the border is within a mile of Apple.

But wait, we are not done yet. The agent signed me up for unit 910. That did not sound right to me, so I asked her whether that were right, was not 909 the downstairs unit? She assured me 910 was the downstairs unit, and I took her at her word.

I returned the next morning to photograph the apartment for you, and I found that 910 was upstairs. That is critical for me, because I need to be able to use my treadmill without disturbing a downstairs neighbor. It was early in the morning, so the agent was not in, and I had several hours to fret. While I ran errands, I almost convinced myself I was misremembering the number, and the paperwork said 909. When I got home, I confirmed it was 910. I left a message for the agent, had lunch, and drove over. When I got there, she apologized for the error and told me the people in the corner unit had decided to move, so I could have it. Thus, I will be in 1001.

Here are the factors I considered in this apartment hunt:

• Size: Peartree is 900 feet². My Nashua apartment was 670, Maitland was 1130, and Newport was 965.
• Room sizes: Both the bedrooms are large enough for the things I had in them in Nashua.
• Distance from work: Peartree is four miles from Apple.
• Commute: The commute involves 15 traffic signals and may have few good alternatives but does allow shopping on the way home.
• Additional location: Shopping within walking distance. Caltrain station within one mile. Easy access to two major highways, 101 and 280.
• Cost: $1160/month. The management estimates $50/month for water, sewer, and garbage bills, but I am budgeting $100.
• Crime: Sunnyvale's crime rate is among the lowest in the area, but Peartree has had some car break-ins in the spaces nearest the street.
• Tenant parking: One covered space.
• Guest parking: More than most complexes here, less than New Hampshire, some street parking available.
• Interior: The workmanship appears significantly better than Newport's, although I think almost all the complexes do the minimum they can. Even the very expensive place Apple put me in temporarily shows some rough edges.
• Grounds: The grounds are pretty nice, as you can see in the photographs.
• Phone jacks: Peartree has phone jacks in all major rooms, so I can put phones and connect computers where I want.
• Noise: Peartree is on a major road with a lot of traffic noise, but the noise level inside the complex seemed okay.
• Lease: I read the leases and policies of my top candidates, and the Peartree terms are tolerable.
• Bicycle space: No good space, maybe in the carport.
• Laundry: No washer or dryer or connections in the unit, which only the fancier places have. Laundry on premises. Few complexes here have laundry rooms in each building. That is needed in New England due to inclement weather but is not in demand here.
• Other amenities: No air conditioning. I ignored the pools and exercise equipment that almost all complexes have.
• Building date: 1979.
• Units in complex: 120.

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© Copyright 2004 by Eric Postpischil.