I own a small apartment house in Asheville. It doesn't make much money, I mainly do it to maintain my connection to the community and have a place to stay, all the rents are below market and I have a diverse group of folks there. I'm proud I'm able to participate in this way.

Lots of trees came down in the yard, thousands of dollars in damages, from Helene. I called FEMA. Their response was it's not your primary residence, no love. What about the other tenants? Common areas are not 'primary residences.' So I expressed some frustration, and the FEMA person really sucked at their response.

They said it was totally fair that I should be responsible, out of pocket for trees. I asked why that was? Their reponse was "this conversation is over," and they hung up. The answer from a decent person would be, I understand your frustration, but FEMA isn't set up to handle this circumstance. Please reach out to SBA.

Here's why this sucks. If I were a recent transplant to Asheville with my multimillion dollar single family residence right next door to my apartment house, thousands of dollars would flow to you from FEMA for your tree damage. I, and my low income tenants, get squat. That is a shameful misallocation of resources.

I've looked, and there is apparantly no assistance to folks in my situation (and nothing available to my tenants). Had the consequences been worse, I would be forced to sell my property, and five decent, hardworking folks would now be forced to find substandard housing. What a world we live in.

I graduated in the spring and spent the last few months at home with family. I'm hoping to find an apartment/job in a major US city working as a legal assistant or paralegal.

I've never rented before, so I have questions, but due to circumstances related to the ones pushing me away from staying at home any longer, I don't have any parents or older siblings to ask for help, so I'm hoping to crowdsource wisdom here. I have specific questions, but also happy to hear any general advice for someone renting an apartment for the first time.

Some relevant context:

• Studio apartment is nonnegotiable. I don't know anyone I trust enough to be my roommate. If that weren't enough, I'm one of the only people still wearing a mask and trying not to get COVID, so it's gotta be a studio for me to be able to relax.
• I'm looking for a walkable neighborhood and good public transit in addition to affordability, so really looking at Chicago and Philly right now.
• I love to cook, but I know studios often have really lackluster kitchens. Hoping to find one with a usable amount of counterspace.

Those questions I had:

1. If you offer to pay a landlord the cost of the lease in full, is it typical for the landlord to waive the requirement that you provide proof of employment, or if you asked them to waive that, would they be likely to say yes? I would really like to take some time off, and coming home was intended to be that, but toxic family means I've just been stressed the whole time, so being able to get a place without needing a job right off the bat would be a fantastic setup to make sure this new start goes well. (If I save up part-time earnings for the next 2-3 months, I'll have enough to pay a lease on a $1200 studio in full, furnish it with the necessities, and feed myself.)

2. Recently I realized that when apartments are listed as unfurnished, that means no bed or mattress either. (I kind of see now why futons are a thing.) How do people usually address this issue? Do you buy a mattress and bed frame with the expectation that you'll take it with you whenever you move out to the next apartment?

3. Since I don't live in the city I'll be moving to, I most likely won't be able to see the apartment in person before committing. Any particular ideas on how I could handle this or what I should be wary of? I've heard of services where you can pay someone to show up to a tour and video call you so you can follow along (https://www.gandertour.com/). $50 doesn't seem too steep, but I don't know if that specific service is trustworthy, or if there's a cheaper or simpler way to deal with this.

Those are my questions, and like I said above, any advice not 100% related to these questions is welcome too!