The Great Cork Apartment Hunt - Episode 2 - Here today, gone tomorrow

So it's now a few weeks on from receiving my notice, and interesting apartments are about as easy to find as honest politicians in Leinster House. Well, that is not quite true. They are available, just way outside of my price range. Granted, the tail end of September isn't the best time to go hunting, as the market is still saturated with university students desperately trying to find a shoebox where they can sleep, but regardless of that the market is noticeably smaller than in the previous years. Then, all of a sudden, something catches my eye. A two-bedroom apartment just a few minutes walk from the office, in a new estate known as the Quadrants which should sound familiar to regular readers of this blog.

That thing really doesn't look bad if you ask me.

The initial description sounds very intriguing indeed. Two bedrooms, modern furniture, in a gated complex, and equipped with all modern conveniences, including that ultimate luxury, a dishwasher. Seriously, Ever since I moved out from my parents place, the only dishwasher in my apartment hat two legs, worked in customer service, and ran a blog on the side, so finally having something like this is a major deal for me. The rent is a bit on the steep side, with 1200€, but still, it is the most promising lead yet, especially since the place is being offered by an agency, which reduces the possibility of being scammed. So I fire off a message via daft.ie, which is my main resource for apartment hunting. Sure enough, within a few hours I get an offer vor a viewing two days later, which I enthusiastically accept. So, will this be the end of my search already?

Well, not quite. You see, the day before the viewing, a major project at work, one that I have been wanting to get involved in for months, finally shows signs of moving forward, with a training due the next day. However, no time has been set, and when I check with my manager about a time, the answer I get is somewhat less than pleasant. The training is scheduled for exactly the same time as my viewing. As much as I like that apartment, I've been trying to get involved in this project for quite some time, so I contact the agency to reschedule the viewing. No sooner have I done that than my manager gets back to me to tell me that he rescheduled the training. Ah well, too late, work does come first after all. The final twist comes during that training, however. 

Well, it looks as if someone else was faster.

An email arrives from the agency. Apparently, while I was busy getting up to speed with that new project, someone else took the apartment. They're just writing me to let me know about it. A quick check on daft confirms this. The apartment ist still available, however it has been tagged as "Let Agreed". Within a space of 48 hours, I went from being a hopeful candidate to being out of the race. It just goes to show how depleted the apartment market in and around Cork really is. So, it's back to the search for me.