We decided to move to a new place a couple of months ago. Couldn't get anyone to show us a place to which to move until this month (they all wanted to concentrate on the start-of-this-month crowd). So, we've been apartment hunting. 5 working days spent so far.

We thought we were going to close a deal this morning... no go, someone else already had an application in that the landlord didn't tell us about and it went through this morning. Grr.

Two more this evening, both a bit pricier than we wanted, but we're just getting fed up with looking and are willing to go a bit higher to get the job done and stop spending time on it. Tomorrow we have to pull together more documentation to show the one we're applying to.

Why can't the "what you need to show to rent" package be standard, preferably with a certification that shows the range of rents for which you are "approved" so that you don't have a multi-day wait each time you apply? Simple operation at the bank, a standard questionnaire for the current landlord, stamps and signatures on both and then you're off to the races; able to just say "yes, I'll take it" and be sure that you've completed the task.

Anyway, I'm bushed. Didn't even get a few minutes of billable work in today but we were out and about for 8.5 hours, none of it fun.