Well this is great fun.

[SeaCat]

Well this is great fun. My wife and I started looking for new digs today. (The building we are currently living in is being sold to make condo's so we have to move. )

Most of the rentals around here in West Palm Beach are well over our self set limit of $850.00 a month. (Hey we make a whole $10.00 and hour each.) There are a couple of interesting looking ones which we will be taking a look at tomorrow morning. Of the twenty listing we have, ten of them are in neighborhoods where it is common to see bars on the windows and bullet holes in the walls, not to mention those funny little paint outlines drawn on the pavement. Most of the rest of them aren't that great looking but we'll take a peak at them anyways. We're not too worried though. Our lease doesn't run out until the end of July and we'll be able to extend it on a month to month basis for a little while after that so we will find us a nice place. It's just going to be a pain in the ass.

Cat

Damn and now it's pissing down rain outside again. (Like we really need more rain.)

 

[The_Fool]

Moving sucks. My condolences. And finding a place that you both like and can afford is mutually exclusive. Best of luck.

 

[mack_the_knife]

Owch, my sympathy is with you. Good luck.

 

[rgraham666]

Good luck SeaCat. It almost sounds like you live in Toronto.

 

[OhMissScarlett]

*scream* $850 a month? this is why we live in the middle of a corn field. Our whole mortgage on a 2200 square foot house with an acre of land is only $600 a month.

Finding the right rental property in any town sucks. I lived in a bunch of crappy rentals before we moved out here. One apartment I lived in was upstairs from a tree service who liked to test their chainsaws every morning. Chainsaw alarm clock, kinda sounds like something from Jackass, doesn't it?

So, good luck to you and the lady, may you find the ideal property without having to deal with a throng of creepy landlords.

 

[Liar]

Heh. You could buy the apartment I'm trying to sell. Total cost w mortages and other stuff is about $700/month. It's got a really nice kitchen and I've got a splendid view from the balony.

I'm in the $400/month budget range these days, since I'm studying. That's why I'm selling.

Only problem, you'd have to move to Sweden. Which isn't half bad in itself, but it's quite a stretch to get to work every morning, I guess.

 

[lucky-E-leven]

I feel your pain, Cat.

I'm not being relocated by assy landlords, but trying to find a rental home for 5 is no picnic. We'll probably do the apartment thing and use that lease to look for nice neighborhoods with good schools, but it'll be cramped to say the least. Nice thing is apartments in TX are much cheaper than where you are, it seems.

Good luck, buddy.

 

[Guest]

Our whole mortgage on a 2200 square foot house with an acre of land is only $600 a month.

If Perdita was still here, she'd be sobbing.

1 bedroom in SF (ok neighborhood) $1600 a month. link

 

[dr_mabeuse]

The thought of moving makes me simply nauseous. I feel for you Cat.

---dr.M.

 

[Guest]

*scream* $850 a month? this is why we live in the middle of a corn field. Our whole mortgage on a 2200 square foot house with an acre of land is only $600 a month.

Yep, it never fails to amaze me how much rent can be.

Ours is close to yours Scarlett. 2500 square foot house on 2 acres... $784 a month and that includes our yearly property taxes and homeowner's insurance. (The house payment itself is only about $650, the rest is insurance and taxes.)

 

[OhMissScarlett]

If Perdita was still here, she'd be sobbing.

1 bedroom in SF (ok neighborhood) $1600 a month. link

Whoa. At least it looks like a nice place. Before my son was born, I lived in a kick ass rental house in town. It was two stories, with two bedrooms, two full baths and a huge kitchen and yard. I thought it was a big stretch for me on my own at $400 a month sans utilities.

then again, when you make $7.50 an hour, it is a stretch.

 

[Op_Cit]

You know you're getting old when...

I make a lot more than you SC, and when I saw the average price of (decent) 1 bedrooms at over $700 (in suburban AZ--wait, is there an urban AZ?) I had a very, very hard time accepting that. It's still bugging me, and I am not a cheap person. What's really gone up my craw is the lease terms these days and the usurious penalties imposed.

I long for the days when I could put everything I needed into my little, two door car and move to a different state.

Just got done moving for the second time in a short while, and here's my remembered lessons: 1) You can never have enough boxes, and 2) dumpsters are your friend.

Did I mention how much it's buggin' me?

And where do you bury guns and ammunition when you live in an apartment?

 

[R. Richard]

If Perdita was still here, she'd be sobbing.

1 bedroom in SF (ok neighborhood) $1600 a month.

I used to live in Staten Island, NY. I paid $750 per month for a two bedroom apartment. My landlord owned the same basic apartment in Manhattan and rented it for $2,400 per month. The two apartments were maybe six miles apart.

Sometines a little searching can make quite a difference in rent paid.

 

[SeaCat]

Thanks fopr all the support guys and gals. To give you a little background here.

The place I live in is a 700 square foot two floor apartment with a nice courtyard. (It was going for $735.00 a month plus utilities.) Tile floors, central heat and air, as well as free cable. We moved in at the end of last July, went through two hurricanes here, and now have been informed they have sold the building. (As some of you know.)

My wife and I went out looking at a bunch of places today. All were under $800.00 a month and sounded good in the realtors listings. At one place the landlord made it quite clear he didn't want to show us the place because of our race. (After looking at the neighborhood I realised he wasn't being rascist, he just didn't want to have to clean up blood.) The other places were much the same. Hmmmmmmmm, BugFuck.

I called a realtor south of us finally called me back this evening and promised plenty of places to look through including one I saw in the paper this morning. 2/2 house with attached garage and large fenced yard for $800.00 a month plus utilities. The realtor says the place needs some work, (mainly cosmetic) and is negotiable on the rent. Might be something interesting. We'll be looking at it tomorrow after work. (It's about half an hour's drive from work to where the house is but that's fine by me. It just gives me more time to drink coffee before I get to work.) Let's hope this place is a good one.

Cat

 

[rgraham666]

Good luck SeaCat.

 

[cantdog]

*scream* $850 a month? this is why we live in the middle of a corn field. Our whole mortgage on a 2200 square foot house with an acre of land is only $600 a month.

Finding the right rental property in any town sucks. I lived in a bunch of crappy rentals before we moved out here. One apartment I lived in was upstairs from a tree service who liked to test their chainsaws every morning. Chainsaw alarm clock, kinda sounds like something from Jackass, doesn't it?

So, good luck to you and the lady, may you find the ideal property without having to deal with a throng of creepy landlords.

Mortgages are always better than rents.

Good luck, SeaCat & Mrs. Cat. There probably is an acceptable rent out there, if you give yourself time to find it. Some landlords are human beings.

 

[Shadowskill Knight]

Wishing you luck.

 

[DrFreud]

You'll get through it Cat. I just moved from 8,000 miles away so you can do it. Admittedly, i'm single and got all my stuff in 2 suitcases

Best of luck. Can't help you with the rain. I moved from one nice weather to another.


DrF

 

[mack_the_knife]

Any luck man? Or are we gonna be getting posts from you in a van on the riverfront?

 

[SeaCat]

Any luck man? Or are we gonna be getting posts from you in a van on the riverfront?

LOLOL

No luck yesterday but today was a bit better. We did a drive by of a one bedroom house near the waterfront. (They want $850.00 a month for it.) The neighborhood isn't the best I've seen but very few of the houses have bars on the windows and we didn't see any of those funny little silhouettes painted on the pavement.

We will be talking to the realtor tomorrow and letting him know we wish to do a walkthrough of the place as soon as we can. (The realtor will be calling us tomorrow morning.) We don't think anyone will be taking a walkthrough any time soon as the current occupant has a PitBull and is being evicted. (I'll take some free meat )

I'll let you know what happens.

Cat

 

[cantdog]

Could be. Thanks for the update; you owe us nothing, but we are concerned, as friends are, with a friend's difficulties. Kepp yourself aware; you can end up in a place with built-in miseries. You know enough about house construction to avoid the big traps. Good fortune.

 

[SeaCat]

Could be. Thanks for the update; you owe us nothing, but we are concerned, as friends are, with a friend's difficulties. Kepp yourself aware; you can end up in a place with built-in miseries. You know enough about house construction to avoid the big traps. Good fortune.

The only real worry I have is about the neighborhood we move into. I can look at a house and see what it's problems are. Hell I might just take on a place because of it's problems. (I enjoy working with my hands.) I will not willingly move into a place where my wife is in any danger. The kind of place I would willingly move into is not always the kind of place I would willingly allow my wife to live.

I have learned over the short time I have been posting on lit that we are not just a group of writers, we are a family of sorts. (Dysfunctional of course but a family nonetheless.) We do care about the others here as can be witnessed by the responses to FaerySongs Thread as well as the wedding of Vella and Lucky. Hell you can see it when members of our group vanish. There are always people asking where so and so went and why.

Cat

 

[SeaCat]

Update

Update,

Well things might just be looking up. We went to check out the "small cottage" I mentioned last night.

The exterior color could be different, it's a strange color of pink/orange. The same color as weathered Terra Cotta. All you can see from the street is the front of the house, a carport and two small windows. Nothing truly awe inspiring but still worth checking out.

Going inside we were in for a shock. After checking out the small kitchen and realizing the house is an older one built in the old South Florida Style with high ceilings we made our way into the living/dining room. WOW!!!!!!!!
The living room is roughly 20x20 with two walls made of glass. The bedroom is roughly the same size. The bathroom is large enough to have a small party in, and off the back of the bathroom is another small room which can be used either as a den/office or as a spare bedroom. (All rooms are floored with tile and the living room and bedroom have ceiling fans.)

Off the back of the house is a small (10x10) patio then a nice sized fenced in yard.

According to the tenant living there now we are the first people to look at it so we have great hopes that we have it. (We put down money to hold it this evening right after looking it over.)

Of and the square footage of the place is 1200 square feet. (Not counting the yard, the patio, or the carport.)

Yeehaw.

Cat