Renting In Boulder - Dr. Sam Shay

Your Ideal Renter

Meet Dr. Sam Shay, DC, IFMCP

If you made an online profile about your rental, the least I can do is make an online profile about me as your future tenant.

Next steps: Please review my profile below, and if you feel your rental may be a match, please call me at 413-230-8980.
Seeking 1-year lease starting btw June 27- July 14.

I’m a mature & responsible 40-year-old clinician settling in Boulder, seeking a 2-bedroom apartment or a very large 1-bedroom apartment. I’m a well-traveled, well-read functional medicine doctor who only does tele-consults with my clients. I help busy, health-conscious entrepreneurs attain and sustain high performance so they can create more freedom for themselves and others. Special focus on brain health, weight loss, fatigue, gut health, hormones, genetics, and sugar & screen addictions. My website is www.DrSamShay.com.

I’m an excellent renter: tidy, respectful, quiet, and an excellent communicator. I treat my place as if I’m an owner. I take excellent care of the appliances, furniture, etc. If I see something is broken or not functioning, I will contact you and discuss if there is a way I can fix it myself (with your permission and oversite) without having to replace the appliance. For example, in my current rental in Boulder, I cleaned the back of the fridge from 7+ years of dust clogging the intake and motor. Later, the fan to eject the cold air stopped working properly. The owner offered to replace the fridge, yet I thought a repair would be a cheaper and more effective option for the owner. I helped get the specs and we got a professional in to fix the part, which saved the owner hundreds on a new fridge. This is exactly what I would have done if I owned the property.

My primary focus is my career: I am a public figure as a functional medicine doctor and I’ve written 4 ebooks and created 3 online courses. I have over 80 clinical videos on my Youtube channel and have been on multiple podcasts and online summits. This is a long way of saying I’m a professional and act as such. Your experience of me as a tenant will be clear and straightforward.

Other things of note:

I eat all organic in a paleo-style (non-vegetarian). I mention that I'm not vegetarian because some landlords only want vegetarians in the house.
No substances: I do not smoke, do not drink, nor do recreational drugs.
No partying or loud music: not my thing.
No kids: I do not have kids nor any dependents (except my 21 lb Frenchie).
No partner or spouse: It is just me living in the apartment.
No debt: I do not carry debt (e.g. no car payment, no student loans, no credit card debt, no mortgage elsewhere, etc). I pay all my bills on time, every time.

What my absolute requirements are (the ‘nice to haves’ are further down):

Location: Northeast Boulder (e.g. Near Steelyards or Valmont dog park). Boundaries would be (approximately) 28th St as the West border, Arapahoe as South border, Kalmia ave as the North border, and 55th st/Minshal road as the East border.
Minimum 750 square feet, like a very large 1-bedroom apartment or a 2-bedroom apartment. I need enough space for my virtual office and a guest space if my mother or one of my sisters comes to visit. If it's a 1-bedroom, I'd get a pull-out couch for the living space (and yes, I would sleep on the couch if my mother came to visit).
Good-sized kitchen: I cook a lot and prefer a kitchen with several countertops to work with. I also have a small chest freezer to store bulk frozen goods.
Dishwasher: I cook a lot and need a dishwasher to save me time on dishes.
Garbage disposal in the sink: I cook a lot and it really saves time for me to be able to quickly resolve anything in the drain.
Central AC/heating: If there is no cooling function or heating function innate to the house, I'd be open to hearing how temperatures are managed. Maintaining a stable cool temperature at night is really important.
Excellent soundproofing from other tenants in the building because I'm on private clinical calls during the day and must maintain privacy for my clients. This includes avoiding noisy neighbors and student housing unless the area is known for housing for graduate students, post-docs, and professors.
Dark curtains or the ability for me to install black-out curtains: I need the bedroom as dark as possible for sleep, so if the bedroom isn't dark, I'd need to have or install my own black-out curtains.
Ability to install an over-the-counter water filter: I have the water filter I want and can get a plumber to properly install it. I can have the plumber uninstall it too at the end of the lease.
Dog-friendly: I have a small 21lb French Bulldog named Lily. She is cute, friendly, and housebroken. She does not chew on anything except her food. She doesn't bark.
Near a dog park (within 10 minutes of a dog park) or there is an inbuilt dog play area if it's a rental complex or has a yard.
Washer-Dryer in the apartment or hook-ups available. Note: If in an apartment complex with communal washer-dryers, it would be on a case-by-case basis if it will work or not. In general, if the washer-dryer is shared with the building and coin-operated, I will pass.
1 Reserved Parking spot: Ideally covered to block ice and hail.
Guest parking spot available that allows for overnight: For example street parking that doesn't have a time limit, or there is a separate permit I can give to my guest so there is no time limit, or there is a dedicated second parking spot.
Easy bike security: I plan on biking around a lot and securing my bike should be straightforward. Examples include an enclosed garage, outdoor shed, etc.
Minimal to no pedestrian traffic that can look into the windows: I value my privacy and prefer to be on top floors of a building or not on a pedestrian street or busy walkway.
Non-smoking rental and not near pot smokers: The smell of smoke affects me, including pot smoke.
Non-new buildings: There are a lot of new buildings in Boulder, yet the off-gassing of the building materials will get to me.
Storage unit: I would need at least a 4x4x6 storage unit or garage space or shed. The small chest freezer would ideally live there.

Nice-to-have list:

What you will have with me as your renter:

Payments on time, every time. I have never missed a payment, ever.
Respectful and clear communication. I listen to people for a living as a clinician and I have lots of training in "Non-Violent Communication" (NVC) and am known as the diplomat to address tense issues between two parties.
A mature and tidy adult who will care for your property as if it were my own. I plan on buying a house next year or the year after and the best way to prepare for homeownership is to treat the properties that I live in as if I owned them and respected them.

What I expect from you as a landlord:

Respectful and clear communication. If there is something that needs attention in the property, I expect it to be attended to in a quick, yet reasonable timeframe, assuming I am not able to attend to it myself. I understand that not every repair can be attended to immediately, yet I have had landlords in the past who were less-than-responsive. If I am prompt and reliable with payments and communication, I would expect the same with needed repairs from you. If there are issues you are aware of with the property or the neighborhood, e.g. future roadworks, demolitions of nearby buildings, noisy neighbors, suspicious activity etc., please give me the courtesy of letting me know as early as possible, as I would do the same for you. It's your property and if I found out about anything that would affect it, I will tell you immediately. I realize that your rental is part of your business. As a small business owner myself, I respect your business and the assets of your business, and I expect prompt respectful communication in return.
My privacy. I'm an introvert by nature and handle sensitive data and phone calls with my clients. I have had landlords just 'drop by' unannounced and it is very disruptive to the nature of my work and concentration. Text me first if you want to drop by and I'll see what I can do with my schedule to accommodate.
You value an excellent tenant over squeezing every last dollar out of your renter or delaying necessary/required repairs if the need arises. We are engaged in a mutually beneficial exchange as renter and landlord. I have rented from excellent landlords and from bad landlords in the past, just as I expect you have had excellent tenants and bad tenants in the past. We would both agree that the primary objective is a mutually beneficial exchange, not a zero-sum game. This may be an odd paragraph to include in this write-up, yet even one bad experience with a bad faith landlord has been scarring, just like you may have had a very bad experience with a bad faith tenant. I'm a very fair person who puts a high priority on truth, intellectual honesty, and fair business practices. I have saved my existing landlord a lot of money and grief by attending the apartment myself, just as if I owned the property.

Budget:

My budget is $1700-2400/mo. There are a lot of options available to (false modesty aside) an ideal tenant such as myself and you are asking for more than that, there should be really compelling reasons for it.
There are additional considerations in the COVID situation: Many of the amenities at condominiums are closed or limited (e.g. fitness rooms are unavailable). The rental amount should reflect the temporary drop in amenities. Meaning, if you are asking for a certain amount, but the amenities are unavailable, then the rent should temporarily reflect that until the amenities are fully re-instated. This is only fair from my perspective. Note: If amenities require a reservation to use (e.g. the pool or a fitness center), that is fine with me. The situation I'm referring to is if the amenities at large were closed completely. This is a reality at certain living complexes.

Hobbies:

Stand-up comedy (yes, you read that right), cooking, writing, The Work of Byron Katie, functional exercise, and podcasts on mythology, history, culture, entrepreneurship, science, and health.

If you’re curious about comedy, the video to the right is me in front of a full house comedy club in Louiseville in late 2019 where I pretend to be David Attenborough narrating a National Geographic wildlife special inside a Boulder coffee shop. My descriptions of the Boulder “fauna” were so on-the-nose, that I got an applause break in the second half of my bit (it may be the residents of Louiseville at the club who just relished the satirical description of Boulderites). I’m an introvert by nature, yet the comedy side of me enjoys being on stage once in a while.

I continue my comedy training and the class I’m a part of will have its “Graduation” at the Tilt on June 18th. Long-term, comedy will be my vehicle to describe human behavior.

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