Condo-Hunting (1): A Promising Start

After seeing only a few places we found this very decent unit within Columbia University Campus, in the Upper West Side; incredible location at an even more incredible price. The tenants were a Spanish couple who would be leaving on a 3-week trip and wanted to sub-lease their place. We clicked right away, we were all ready to close immediately, however Tomas the tenant told us that he had to run some paperwork through the university. This was the only requirement from the University to have subtenants in their premises. The following day I took Tomas all the documentation that he had requested; he was impressed. Although I truly liked this place, its luminosity, its quietness -in spite of being so centrally located-, its location, I had a hunch that these guys were not very sure of what they were doing.

A few days later, we learnt that Tomas had made a mistake in the procedure: he had filed the request for the authorization at the University office instead of at the School office, who would take anywhere between 3 and 7 days to reply (i.e., they would be already on their trip). This means that they had lost the opportunity of subletting their apartment, and we had lost a gem. They did not want to try some other way around.

During those days of waiting for their response, the hunting (or fishing?)* continued. I realized why, in English, looking for a place to live is referred to as ‘hunting’; we were just starting to experience the elusiveness of our target in the NY wildlife!


Lesson 1: Lie down with dogs and you wake up with fleas (or in Spanish, el que con chicos se acuesta, mojado amanece). Lesson 2: Listen to your hunch!! What are you waiting for?


* “Hunting is the practice of pursuing living animals (usually wildlife) for food, recreation, or trade. Hunting advocates state that hunting can be a necessary component of modern wildlife management. The pursuit, capture and release, or capture for food of fish is called fishing, which is not commonly categorized as a form of hunting. The aspects of skillful tracking and acquisition of an elusive target in the pursuit of game have caused the word hunting to be used the vernacular as a metaphor.” [From www.wikipedia.org]


NOTE: All names in this blog have been changed, unless explicitly noted and with the incumbent’s authorization.