So far of all the details involved with our move, subleasing our apartment here in Chicago has been the most nightmarish. We’ve had a hard time finding renters and the process has been frustrating to deal with.

Here’s the story.

After about two weeks listing the unit on Craiglist, we got a call for a showing with a couple who already live in our building. They came and really liked the unit, but must have known we were getting a little desperate because they made a lot of requests outside the parameters of the lease.

They wanted to move in on Dec. 15, not Dec. 1. They wanted a reduced rent rate during our sublease period (four months) before resigning with our landlord. They wanted our landlord to put in a break clause that lets them get out of the lease at any time with one months notice and an extra months rents. It was getting to be a bit much, but we didn’t have any other interested parties.

That night I got a message from someone else asking if the unit was still available because she was moving to Chicago. I immediately responded and even went home on my lunch break to take and upload extra pictures to send her.

She responded that she wanted to see the unit the following week when she was in town, so I told the other couple that we had another party interested that would meet all our terms. They agreed to hang tight until we showed it to her.

Well, that showing was supposed to be on Wednesday around 4pm. I got up in the morning and thoroughly cleaned, came home from work early and freed up my whole night (which isn’t easy to do when you’re moving across the country and have a million things to get done) to conduct the showing.

And….the girl never showed up. Not a call, not an email. Just radio silence.

I’m trying in my head to give her the benefit of the doubt- there are a lot of things that could have happened to make her neglect to show or call, right? Grrrr.

Anyway, once I realized we were being stood up, I contacted the original couple to let them know the place was theirs. Nothing is that easy though and they told us that they would need to “discuss” it as they may want to explore other options now.

I really hope this ends sometime soon!

On a brighter note- we’re having a going away party this Saturday at Zella’s (where we met!) – 1983 North Clybourn Avenue at 8:00 pm. If you’re around, please come join us!