Apartmenting

What is the most important thing to look for in an apartment? Some would argue location location location as the 3 most important things to consider when buying a house. It seems that location is important in renting too the only difference is it is easier to move when you rent so essentially nothing is as important. That being said I love the location of what will soon be my new apartment (hopefully). It is the first floor of a two story house, there’s about a 10 minute walk to the two different strassen bahn stations and the Train station is not far (although not within walking distance). Down town is equally not far and neither is the University of Mannheim which is located in the old castle (it is huge!). The house has a very pretty back yard (landscaped and cared for by the upstairs tenants) and is on a dead end street with a bakery on one corner and a soccer field/running track on the other side of the culder-sac. It’s almost suburban but just when you think it is boring you remember the city is easily accessible and after the strassen bahn stops running it will only be a short cab ride home. Frankfurt airport is 30 minutes and 20 EUR from the train station and Patrick’s daily commute us about 10 minutes each way. I don’t think the location could be much better. From the inside, it’s white with light wood flooring (I believe it’s called laminate) and each room has an interesting light fixture. The kitchen is included which saves us a lot of hassle associated with uninstalling and reinstalling our kitchen. There are 2 bedrooms about equal in size, one will become a shared office. There is also a living room which is slightly larger and then an eat in kitchen. Then we must not forget my favorite feature, the “winter garden” a balcony with glass windows all around and large enough to hold a table and 4 chairs with plenty of extra space. I can already see myself working from here mid day when the sun is shining in or having dinner out here with the windows open in the summer. The last feature I haven’t mentioned is the bathroom. This is my least favorite part as it is small and with a washing machine will be much smaller. However, it is set up as a bathroom and a WC which means the toilet and the bath tub are in separate rooms and can be used at the same time w/o disturbance. However both rooms also include a sink and the WC is quite literally a closet but really, how much time does one spend in the bathroom? I also forgot to mention the apartment comes with a garage (no photo) where Patrick will park his car and hopefully get a reduction on insurance because of it. So enjoy the photos and the video (if I got that up her and working) and keep your fingers crossed that we get the apartment! Beyond anything else, I would hate to have to start over in the search now that we found one so close to being perfect. bedroom (above) living room Kitchen - note the dishwasher and ceramic stove top kitchen - fridge side WC and bathroom