How to Conduct a Super-search

Last year around this time I was searching very hard for an apartment. I
felt like I'd never been properly taught how to do this kind of a search,
so I wrote up some notes on it. Looking at these, I realized that this is
a more general class of search in life that these might apply to, for
instance the search for a job, for the perfect couch, or an idea for a
thesis. But I will use my apartment search as an example. The core things are
EXPLORE EVERY AVENUE SIMULTANEOUSLY
ORGANIZATION and
PERSISTENCE.

EXPLORE EVERY AVENUE SIMULTANEOUSLY
* This is what you might call a parallel terraced scan (if you're a
Hofstadter fan), or equally nerdy, a breadth first search.
* Spend time assembling lists of places to look, constantly growing that
list. I kept a bookmark folder for the kingston websites that had
apartment listings, and kept finding new websites with listings that
weren't on the others. Ask people where they look.
* Places I looked: the web, riding my bike around neighbourhoods I wanted
to live in looking for "For Rent" signs, the newspaper classifieds (often
overlooked), and especially word of mouth. Of the 3 apartments I made a
bid for, one was from the web, one was from word of mouth, and one was
from the newspaper.
* Very important: TELL EVERY SINGLE PERSON YOU MEET about your search. I
was amazed at the number of leads I got from friends and friends of
friends, as well as advice. I must have looked at at least 5 based on
those tips. Keep your friends updated on your search. Ask them about their
places, what they're happy about and not so happy, and what they pay.
* Whenever you go to see a place, ask the person there if they have any
other properties they are trying to rent.
* Pursue all these avenues simultaneously, don't get stuck on any one.

Which definitely requires:

ORGANIZATION
* I would harvest addresses from all these different sources every day,
filter some out based on my criteria, and dump into a big file
* Pretty quickly I realized with the volume of listings I was checking
out, I would need to keep detailed notes on my progress with each one. I
actually came very cloee to visitng the same apartment twice when I was
right in the fury of it, and certainly got all excited about a listing
only to realize I'd already ruled it out.
* After a while I had set up 3 different files: one that I would dump all
the listings in that looked promising, with as much info on them as I
could glean but most importantly contact info, one called Apartments SEEN
with notes on my impressions after having visited, and one called RULED
OUT which I moved a listing to when it was no longer in the running for
whatever reason. So each listing only appeared once in the three.
* Record in a format such that you can compare them as much as possible
* The discipline of maintaining these notes became particularly important
when it came to places with just a phone number. If the person wasn't
home, I would write down the date I called, so I could make sure to try
them again.

Which leads me to:

PERSISTENCE
* The places that took the most persistence, for instance in calling back,
were not necessarily the best, but not the worst either. My eventual
apartment could have easily come from one of those places.
* Prepare for it to be a big, long search. Mine took 2 months, and in the
end I had been shown 27 different places. (wow) Go into it with that
mindset, and hey, you might get lucky right away.
* Start NOW. Even if you don't have all the info you need, even if you
don't really know what you want. Use the first ones you see to help figure
out what you want. Be ok with possibly losing one of those early places
because you don't yet know enough to be able to say yes confidently.
* By the same token, it's worth going out to check out places you're
pretty sure you don't want, just to clarify your preferences more. It's ok
to not quite know what you want at first.
* At the same time, always be working on a set of criteria where you know
it would be good enough for you, so you can rent on the spot to grab it,
and end this time-consuming search. This is known as satisficing: this is
so good that it would not be worth the cost of the rest of the search and
its uncertainty to find something better.
* As you can tell from the organization section, you have to get into an
everyday rhythm: checking your traplines for new listings, slotting them
where they belong, and adding info from phonecalls you make, emails you
receive, and visits you make. Each listing is its own mini project, that
you keep moving along.
* Learn to enjoy the process! Be like a machine grinding through this
stuff, not thinking too much about the endpoint. Do it with enthusiasm.
* Don't get fixated on any one as the perfect place. There will be lots
that will work fine for you; don't stop looking. And if you lose a
"perfect place" just yell NEXT!! That happened to me *twice*, that I had
settled on a place, had spent a lot of time picturing myself there, in
fact thought we had agreed that I had it, but was snatched away from me.
Frustrating, but the search goes on, and I ended up with a terrific place.

So that's my advice that should apply to any of these large scale super
searches. I took all that time and effort, maybe more than I really
needed, just to find out what it felt like to do it *right*. I won't
always be able to do that in the future either, but this is what it feels
like.

In addition I include:

ADDITIONAL KINGSTON or APARTMENT-SPECIFIC TIPS

* It ain't over till you sign a lease! Landlords will screw you like that.
To be fair, they probably get screwed on verbal agreements all the time
too.
* Sharing a two-bedroom makes a lot of economic sense.
* Lots of electronic listings you can copy out of your web browser and
paste into Excel, then you can sort by price, location, etc.
* Start before the end of may for sure, probably way earlier. However note
that all the Homestead places start coming up and being snatched up
in late may/early June, as that's the two-month notice deadline.
* You can find out what a place's elecricity bill was over
the last year from the city. Dial 613-546-0000,press 5
* Places to look you might not have thought of:
Kingston Whig-Standard
Craigslist
Facebook
Websites for holding companies: Panadew, Homestead, Keystone, Springer,
Lamb Rentals, Jonallea Housing, anglesey
* Try to ask around about your prospective landlord. I had an experience that left a sour taste in my mouth with one named Harvey Palmer.