with the apartment people, explain the deal. Ask what you can do. It's a month, not like you are bailing a month into the lease, I'm sure if the landlord is not a pure dick they can work with you.

I agree!

So my mom is a landlord. She works with people who rent her month-to-month places and those who rent year-to-year. In the case where something comes up, and an honest mistake like this would probably qualify, my mom works with tenants. And she basically says, Look, if I can find someone to move in then, and I don't spend a month with an empty place and no renters, you're good to not have to pay some fee because you violated the lease.

Now, I don't know if that's particularly common, especially with the larger, faceless property manager company people. But you have a month and a half before you move out? See if you could offer to help them find a replacement. And if that's something your landlord could abide by, ask your friends if they're interested in your cool place that's going on the market soon. Or even post to craigslist, and you could refer interested parties to your landlord.

And you could also sublet. Don't underestimate people's desire to rent a place for only a little while. I had to do that while I was looking for a more permanent home in a city that I wasn't familiar with. I was able to live somewhere temporarily and scout around, so a month-to-month deal was what I looked for first.

Best of luck!