Series preamble: To settle into a city you just lease an apartment and change your driver’s license, right?  Well, it is not so simple if a) you’re a nomad with no permanent address; b) your most recent permanent address was in a different country; and c) there’s a pandemic.  Here are some of my amusing obstacles to becoming a documented member of structured society again.

Second up – getting a permanent address

In April, property managers and the government(s) were trying to adapt with limited information about COVID-19.  (Was anyone even moving?) How would they disinfect an apartment and how long should it be vacant to be safe for a new tenant?  How could they do any open houses with staff working from home and prospective clients also not going outside?  Normally enticing building amenities like fitness rooms, lounges, and terraces were all closed.  Even concierge services had moved from a front desk to a back room.  It was a real test of “imagine what it would be like to live here!”

Finding an apartment involved a lot of phone calls, to identify what was even available because websites weren’t being updated.  And the phone calls usually involved an email exchange of photographs and floor plans.

Side note – I did go through a deep reflection on whether I would lease furnished or get my stuff that was in storage in San Francisco, and whether I would lease based on cost to keep expenses down or lease based on a space that would make me happy.  I decided that I needed a place that brought me joy – to spend long days and weeks indoors, and to get excited about launching my business.  It’s a pretty clear scenario of ‘investing in myself.’

It was perhaps the fourth apartment building that I had called, when I was struggling to imagine what an available apartment would feel like. I kept wanting to look out the windows of the photographs the manager had emailed. I was staring at GoogleMaps for orientation. I finally blurted out, “I need to see the sky!”

It is pretty incredible what happens when we say our truth out loud. I felt an internal – ‘Ya! That’s it! That’s what it is really important to me. Why didn’t I say that sooner?” And the manager was able to take this clarity and say ‘Oh! Then you need a unit I have in the building next door.’ And in the next email, there it was – what I knew was MY apartment. It had a great layout, a reasonable price, an awesome location, and endless windows full of sky.

But was it as amazing in real life as the photos? A different leasing company had sent me an ‘applied without viewing addendum’ after exchanging some emails about an interesting unit. I didn’t proceed with them so I don’t know when in the process I would have actually seen theIr place. For MY apartment, this was on my mind, given a visit wasn’t proactively offered. It was an emotional few minutes waiting for a reply to my request to visit…..but thankfully the unit had been vacant since before COVID and they had figured out social distancing for me to pop up and see it….on my own….wearing a mask….without touching anything.

It was indeed as amazing in real life as the photos. So I wanted to quickly submit an application. The paperwork was simple, right?  Well…

• The application asked for:
  • Phone Number.
    • Woot!  I have one. (See previous blog post.)
  • Present Address.
    • They probably didn’t mean the AirBnB.  So I strike out ‘present’ and offer ‘most recent’ stable address so they could potentially call my previous property manager – right?
  • Salary and Supervisor Name.
    • Ummm, I plan to launch a business, but it’s too early to know the revenue stream.  There is no one to call about my employment in a sole-proprietorship.
    • One reason I wanted a building with a large portfolio, was the likelihood that they would entertain a “proof of funds” approach (versus “here is my pay stub” approach) which indeed turned out to be the case.  Whew.
• The process included a criminal record check, that asked for:
  • The last two places “I lived”.
    • Technically, that’s the current and previous AirBnB, which covers less than a two month period.  But here you go…
• The process included securing renter’s insurance, and the online form asked for:
  • Current Permanent Address.
    • Not again….how about I use this awesome phone and get a real person to set-up some insurance for me?!

It all worked out, and reminded me how much easier and efficient it is to engage in conversation to make things happen.  

None, and I mean none, of the forms could be effectively filled out by a nomad.  There is an understandable baseline assumption that everyone pre-exists in some system.  The forms were meant to ‘streamline’ processes, but for me they were roadblocks – with the byproduct of sparking creativity.  When they necessarily led to CONVERSATIONS, I a) found an even better apartment after sharing what really matters to me, b) got a clearer understanding of what insurance can cover, and c) was able to relax about getting a lease while not currently being traditionally employed.  

This has heightened my awareness of when I start to slide back into relying on email and texting, instead of conversation.  

And even though I now have a traditional answer to our society’s default question of “where do you live?”, I am even more motivated to break away from that as a conversation starter.