Apartment Blog

I was watching ‘The Wedding Date’ the other day and I heard an astounding statistic that made me rewind my DVR to hear it again. The commercial stated that according to Harris Interactive research, “On average, 236 members [of a national online dating networking site] get married each day.” Each day!? Are you serious? I couldn’t believe that. On average two hundred and thirty six members who sought out their loved one online get married every day of the year?? That’s amazing!

After hearing that statistic I immediately opened my lap top and looked it up (yes, I am that nerdy). The woman didn’t lie, it was an accurate count. I was shocked. So I then started looking up tips and advice about creating an online dating profile. Not for myself, of course, but just for educational purposes! And here are a few things that I learned….

Good First Impressions:
A good first impression is very important in the online dating realm. You need to make sure what you put out there is an accurate representation of yourself. The two specific areas I’m referencing are screen names and photos. You want to make sure your screen name isn’t too vague, but also accurately portrays you and maybe has something personal to go along with it.  Something like ‘Gillian<3VA’ is too broad, but ‘CreativeGillian’ would be more descriptive (although I will have to admit that still isn’t that interesting). Photographs also help make great first impressions. You want the photo on your profile to show off the real you. You want it to display your features (if you have a bald head, don’t try and cover it up in the photo…it’ll be discovered one way or another). Take lots of different photographs in lots of different backgrounds with different poses and choose wisely which one you want to represent you!

Personal Description:
In the description you write make sure you are first and foremost, honest. You want to show who you really are. Highlight great attributes you have through your profile instead of just stating them (i.e. instead of saying you have a sense of humor, show it through your profile or instead of saying you enjoy music, be specific about what type and what band, etc.).  Another tip is to be conversational in your description. You don’t want to come across as throwing a ‘sales pitch’ on why someone should date you!

Embrace it!
Check out all your matches, go with your gut instinct and find opportunities to meet new people. Date around and have a good time.  Enjoy the dating process until you find ‘the one’, because he or she will come around!!

If you’re relocating to a new area, I can only imagine how hard it is to meet new people. So look at the online dating strategy as an opportunity to get yourself out there in your new hometown. And I would recommend checking out our relocation center as well as our life tips page for more resources.

As tradition with last years post Best Cities for Singles, we have posted the newest version for all those single folks! These rankings, done by Forbes, are meant to be a guide for young, ambitious singles who can live and work wherever they want.

To determine the best cities out of the 40 largest urbanized areas in America they devised criteria of seven categories:  number of singles, night life, culture, cost of living alone, job growth, online dating activity and coolness (the last criteria being my favorite). In order to determine the coolness of each city, a poll was conducted in which participants were asked “Among the following U.S. cities, which one do you think is the coolest?” It is no surprise that New York was deemed the coolest city overall.

Here are the top 10….

1. Atlanta, GA

2. San Francisco, CA

3. Dallas, TX

4. Minneapolis, MN

5. Washington D.C

6. Seattle, WA

7. Boston, MA

8. New York City, NY

9. Orlando, FL 

10. Phoenix, AZ

Atlanta, the capital of Georgia, tops the Forbes list of the best cities for singles mainly because of its great night life, high number of singles in the area as well as the great job growth market! In the eight years Forbes has been ranking America’s cities for singles, Atlanta has been in the top ten all but one year. Making it one of the friendliest cities!

Want to see if your city made the list?

Check out Forbes.com’s complete list of the Best Cities for Singles 2008 here. You can even sort by top cities for culture, nightlife, singles, job growth, living cost and online.

When relocating to a new area there are many difficult obstacles to overcome, like finding a new place to live, finding a date, finding your way around town and most importantly finding a job. With the economy threatening a recession and the unemployment rate escalating in many cities, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find a job. Luckily, ForRent.com is making it easier for you to search for jobs in your area. If you visit the Relocation Center you can rummage through multiple job listing sites for openings and apply to ones that meet your skill set. So while the idea of moving to a new area is still scary, ForRent.com can help make the process a little bit easier. Visit ForRent.com and look for a new job today!

While Valentine’s Day is often thought of for couples, it provides an excellent time for singles to meet new friends. And Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to test the waters. Did you know that over two thirds of all singles try online dating? It’s a social scene that’s gradually getting more and more attention. You probably know someone who is on a dating site! I myself know a guy who met his wife online. They are happily married now for over three years! So if you see Valentine’s Day as an opportunity for love why not ‘test the waters’ with something new?

Here are a few tips to make your online dating process that much more successful!
1) Visit ForRent.com’s Relocation Center! On there you’ll see ‘Find a Date’ link. Then you’ll be brought to a page that will take you to a dating site.
2) Be sure to take time and complete your profile. This includes a picture! A majority of searchers won’t be as interested in you if they can’t see what you look like. In the description don’t go too personal, but write things about yourself, what kind of person you are looking for, interests, etc. This will help find someone with common interests as you.
3) Try not to be over eager. It is an Internet world where people check their email and myspace page 2 and 3 times a day, but that doesn’t mean that you should bombard others with constant messages. It’s not only intrusive, but it also gets a bit annoying. Give and take space!
4) Don’t just try one method. You may remember that movie with Diane Lane, ‘Must Love Dogs’. In the movie Diane Lane’s character, Sarah Nolan, was told by Dolly, Stockard Channing’s character, that she must venture into other Internet sites! You’ve got to explore all your options! So don’t limit yourself to online dating, continue going out and meeting people elsewhere too!
5) Have fun! Dating can be fun, if you let it. You get to meet all sorts of new and exciting people and have a good time! So don’t look at it as an opportunity to land ‘Mr. Right’, but rather an opportunity to enjoy being you!