Renting Blues

Aran and I are currently looking for a new place to live, and let me tell you what a nightmare it has been. There are so many factors that go into looking at a place and so far we have had no luck finding anywhere to live. Our lease is up at the end of this month and we have already given our 30 day notice, so I am hoping that we find something soon. And of course, I stress about things like this, so I have been super stressed out. I just keep praying that something will come up, but so far no luck.

What sucks right now is that it is definitely not a renters market right now. And by that I mean that the person trying to rent does not have the upper hand. There are so many people trying to rent right now because of how crappy the economy. With that being said, places being posted are going like hot cakes. I will call on a place that was just posted the day before and it will already be gone. That is something that annoys the crap out of me. If the place has already been taken, THEN TAKE THE POSTING DOWN!!! Don't make me make a ton of pointless calls. It just pisses me off even more.

If dealing with places being snatched up left and right hasn't been enough, then there is the issue of our cats. We will find a place that we really like and then we look down at the pets section and it will say no cats. Or if they do take cats they want a deposit. Now I understand that I am going to have to pay some type of a deposit. I get that, I truly do. But then people start tacking on pet rent and not to mention the last few places that we looked at they make you pay more for the pets if they are under a year old! So for Aran and I we would have had to put down a pet deposit of $600 and then a regular deposit of $695 plus first months rent! That is just insane. Why should I have to pay more just because my cats are under a year old? They have both been neutered and they are litter box trained. They are considered adult cats. It is such crap!

I am about at my end with this whole thing. I mean one apartment complex makes you rent the washer and dryer in the apartment for an extra $20 a month. Really? Why not just include it in the rent so when someone calls they know exactly what they are getting for the price that you quote them? Can you sense my frustration?   It just gets worse with each call that I make.

I keep asking myself why we are putting ourself through this. And why don't we just stay where we are at? And then I remember it is because they hiked our rent up from $765 a month to $820 a month on the place that we are currently in. I wish we could afford that, because I would be a lot less stressed and agitated at this point. But none the less, we can't afford that and so the search continues. We have our names down to look at these apartments down the street from work, so hopefully those work out. The only downside is that there is now washer and dryer in the apartment but they have hook ups and they have an onsite laundry facility so we could work with that.

Well everyone, wish us luck! I will keep you updated on our search as things start to figure themselves out. If any of you have any advice on house hunting or apartment hunting, please share them in the comments below. Thanks in advance! And remember...it is almost FRIDAY!! Woo hoo!!