Setting up life

My goodness, I can’t believe that nearly two weeks have now passed of me living and working here in Gainesville! In this post I’m going to explain the process of me getting set up with an apartment, and car, though I may have to expand into tangential posts to explain everything because they’re just been so much!

Work had flown me out to Gainesville three days prior to my official start date so that I had some time to start getting my life settled before starting to work. I enjoyed a number of café’s and restaurants and even made my very first friend while watching a soccer game at a local bar called Mothers (excellent spot).

Apartment Hunt

In the first two days I think I visited every apartment complex in the city that had open units. It’s a really interesting dynamic here. First, cost of living is much lower than what I am used to (thanks for the inflated sense of apartment value SD) but prices still are high in some areas due to proximity to the University of Florida. The range of apartments is huge. Some are tall towers resembling hotels, others are little bungalows spread out around “ponds” (which honestly are enormous puddles that stick around all year because of the mass amounts of rain). Some are renovated and beautiful, others are very obviously used and lived in. And most of the one bedrooms’ are shaped exactly the same way—more of a long mobile home than an apartment, so as you walk in from the door you pass through each living space individually.

For me it came down between two quite different but individually beautiful places. It turned out the smaller of the two one based on proximity to things and price, and after a week here I’m so so glad with the decision.  While I’m not currently in my exact apartment that I’ll live in for the year (I wanted one surrounding the inner lawn with a pool, they said it would be open, then the people didn’t move out when expected so I said I’d take another apartment till they move out. Well, they’re out and I’m just waiting for the okay for me to switch places!)  It’s wonderful because the community is ultra quiet, the place is small but very cozy, and I even got out to enjoy the pool and sunshine today (though I didn’t last long in the 90 degree heat!)

Vehicle

I really wanted to get a vespa when I moved here. They’re extremely affordable, fun, and the weather is usually nice enough to warrant riding one. While I had much family opposed to such an idea, I was just not feeling the whole “buy a junky used car” option that seemed like my only other choice. But, before I moved to Florida I had done some research on car leasing, just in case I’d need a car after all.

So here I was, set on a vespa, and then in talks with my boss (wonderful guy) he made it very clear that a manager level employee should probably have an enclosed vehicle, particularly as I may be looked to travel in it occasionally. I wasn’t really interested in buying an old used car and I sure don’t have the funds to buy new, but I had looked into leasing as a viable option. The only problem there is that leases usually require a few thousand dollars down and really excellent credit. Fortunately for me, I heard of this thing called Swap-a-lease, where you take over other people’s leases, getting out of all the multi-thousand dollars of origination and lease fees. You simply apply for a swap and then start taking over payments.  I had spoken with a number of car owners and was ready to move forward with a lease option with someone but they kept falling through.

Finally, I got fed up with waiting around on people and decided to just go to the dealer.  I changed from my after-work running clothes and called the Toyota dealer to ask if they’d be willing to talk with me about leasing if I showed up about 5 minutes before close. They said come on in and so I did.

I sat down with a gentleman named Mike and told him what I wanted. I specified a monthly payment, told him I didn’t want to make a down payment but if necessary I could, and that I wanted to walk out the door tonight with a car.  Of course, car dealers love to hear that so we discussed car options (thought thinking back I just told him “get me a car at this price”, so when he came back with a Camry at the exact prices I asked).  The reason I got it so cheap (this payment was less than anything I had heard of for a lease, let alone a brand new upgraded Camry—he asked if I planned on coming in on the last day of the month and told me that’s the only reason I got such an amazing payment! Talk about fortune!

I filled out paperwork and he realized I just graduated from college. Turns out Toyota has a program for recent grads where there are no down payments or origination fees if you graduated within two years! So there went the biggest fee I was expecting to pay, I simply gave him my first month down payment in cash (I had it because I was expecting to move forward with a vespa purchase in cash)!  Then he sent my paperwork to be processed and we walked outside where I picked my exact vehicle from the lot.  After I chose it, we finalized paperwork and I made plans to go back the next day and get my car! It’s a 2011 Toyota Camry and it has all the perks, electric windows and locks and CD players and an AV hookup. It’s quite nice.

So there I was, papers signed for a brand new car and an apartment to move into whenever I was ready! My work was relieved when I told them I had signed a contract on a place-it meant I wasn't going to decide to leave anytime soon!