Though we have decent credit and awesome rental history, we don't make much. My husband works full time and I am a stay-at-home mom, so we made about $300 less a month than the standard 3X rent. We didn't have a co-signer, so they decided we could move IF we paid two month's rent, $250 pet deposit and our $300 pro-rated rent for half a month. Okay, fine. We borrow money and pay $60 application fee, and $100 holding fee. All's fine. Our rent is to be $659 and they cover water sewer trash and GAS (hot water, cooking, and heating) which was pretty cool.
Then we call to get the specifics of moving in and find out our move-in costs are going to be $1900. We also find out that we pay water and sewer, not them. Then we find out we have to pay $38/month for cable we don't even want (which they CAN do legally, since they are the provider of the cable.) So that's an extra $68 (approx.) a month we were not expecting. Doesn't sound like much but when you're left with $200 after paying the bills each month for food, it's more than you'd think. Then, I pick up a copy of the lease and it says right in there that TENANT is responsible for hot water and heating. I asked them if that was something they could amend and they said yes, then no, then maybe, and now I haven't heard back from them. To top it off, I asked about the accent wall (they give you a choice of 8 colors and paint a specific wall) and Matt (the office guy who posted on Craigslist) said "It's too late, you have to give us two week's notice before you move in if you want to have it painted" (which he didn't let us know two weeks before, when we viewed the apartment). I asked Matt about the administrative charge for billing for water (it's in the lease) and he said, "we don't charge for that". The manager lady called and told me it's $3. Okay, I know, it's only $3 but you'd think he would have known what he was talking about before he lied about it, you know?
So anyway. I was really looking forward to moving in here but they screwed it all up and now I'm stuck looking for another apartment. Thankfully (?) I'm staying at my in-laws and am able to stay until we find another place. I don't know what we would have done were that not the case.