I must confess, I still believe. There must be a perfect apartment in Madison; a clean apartment, with locks on the doors, heat, good location, no drafty windows, a landlord who fixes things in a prompt manner and (*gasp*) reasonable rent. I might have had time to search for this apartment, but nearly every student returning to campus next fall is in the process of making housing arrangements for the upcoming school year, trying to sign a lease for a place to live, as if the first to sign receives a prize.

In fact, the opposite is true. The first to sign gets high rent, a lot of stress and, if lucky, a quasi-decent place to live.

Landlords must love the frenzy students work themselves into trying to secure a place to live. Steve Brown has wannabe tenants waiting outside in attempts to land a livable apartment. The fact that the housing market is so competitive early in the year is advantageous only to the landlords.

The truth is, there is an excess of housing on campus, yet because of the housing rush in November and December, landlords can still charge over-the-top rent and provide below-par service and housing.

The housing search in Madison comes at possibly the worst time of the year, right before fall semester finals, when everyone is busy and when everyone is still learning how to live with their present roommates. The fact that most students sign a lease before leaving for winter break is absurd. There is still a half of a school year left where a lot can and usually does happen.

Understandably, one cannot wait to sign a lease if everyone else is becoming legally bound to some sought-after rickety old house, because then a person might be stuck living at Master Hall. (Never been inside, but the outside is freaky.) The problem is with the date that landlords are legally allowed to give tours of their property. If this date was later in the year, the housing fiasco may not begin until later.

Of course, while Nov. 15 is the first day landlords can legally show property to interested parties, most soon-to-be tenants have already seen their future apartments by this date and are now arranging who will bring the microwave. But many cannot sign a lease until this day, so by pushing it back, students could focus on other things of importance, such as midterms.

But instead of studying, students, with eight months left on their leases, are consumed by the great apartment search. The competition for next year’s living arrangements began with the first house party of the school year.

Some students are known to go to parties just to check the place out, taking notes on what apartments need exterminators and which have free parking nearby. Others observe whose roommate is known to let the trash pile up for days and whose bakes cookies on a regular basis.

As I arrange for my last year of housing in Madison, I am done pretending that I will find the perfect apartment, a roommate who takes out the trash and a landlord that fixes things quickly and charges me reasonably. And so, to my future landlord, whoever you may be, hit me baby … one more time.

Joanna Salmen ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in journalism and Spanish.