so, i saw a small two bedroom apartment this afternoon, or tried to - a group of five indian males had beat me to it, and i walked into the negotiation.

i was hoping to secure a two bedroom apartment for $800, which was the list price. but, he decided that, if there are going to be five people living in the two bedroom apartment, he should charge them $300 each.

for utilities.

so, they got there first and put down an offer of nearly twice as much. i didn't waste my breath arguing the point. but, it helped me understand the situation a little bit better.

regardless of the size of the apartment or of the number of people in the party, i cannot compete against this. if a two bedroom is listed at $800, and they come in with a party of five at $300 each, i lose. even a party of three at $300 each beats me. if a one bedroom apartment is listed for $700, and they want to come in with a party of three at $350/person, i lose, too.

but, how did we get these thousands of indian students, all of a sudden? this is crazy.

we shouldn't be having people living in close quarters like this, but so long as they keep offering these kinds of payments to landlords, the landlords are going to take them.

they also carried forward without a lease, which is telling. these kids don't know what they're doing. and, the landlord didn't want to tell them.

to a certain extent, they're being taken advantage of. the problem here is the landlord - he should not be renting out a two bedroom apartment to a group of five students. that's irresponsible and greedy.

but, if this is what is happening, i cannot compete with it. i need to find the right kinds of landlords, instead...