A Housing Adventure...Or Nightmare. You Decide.

Jon and I have recently begun the search for a new house. Not to buy…we’re not there yet, besides I’m free spirit and I don’t want to be tied down to one place just yet. But recently I have started to wish that we were indeed looking to buy. We take these long drives through the areas we want to rent in and let me tell you, all the good houses are for sale and all the great neighborhoods don’t have rentals! Now I may be a little picky, I’ll admit that, but I want to have people over to my house and not be ashamed!

something like this would be nice...see i'm not all that picky...

 So blue/orange/shaggy carpet is out. That weirdly dark wood against white walls…out. A tiny ‘bedroom’ that looks suspiciously like a laundry room? Out! But standards are good! Needless to say, we’re still looking. The problem is, we don’t exactly have eons of time to take the aforementioned drives and craigslist…well let me tell you about craigslist. First off, let me just say that we did find the duplex we live in now on this site and it is fabulous! Anyone who has been to my house knows this. I’m not bragging here, it was all painted and nice when we moved in, but it sets our sights high because we don’t want a downgrade.

Our living room 

its so simple, clean, perfect

So, now that you know that craigslsit does have the potential to be useful, allow me to whine (only slightly) about its ‘dark side’ (not in a creepy, illegal way, more of a “THIS IS SO FRUSTRATING” way). First off, the people who post ads for houses are liars! I don’t know how many posts I’ve clicked on saying ‘beautiful house in great neighborhood’ only to see that its actually in a really bad area (I won’t name names...*cough cough* north end) and the house looks like it may not last another year. Don’t these people know I can simply type the address into Google maps? They have this thing called street view…meaning I can see the ‘beautiful house’ and lest we forget the ‘map’ part, showing me the ‘great neighborhood’. And those are the ones that actually give the address! Some say ‘west Toledo’ and are nowhere close! I feel like im wasting my time calling these people just to find out that their idea of west Toledo is very different than mine. And, once again, those are the ones that actually have a phone number. I have come to realize that if there is an email address but no number, I will get an email from someone in Nigeria and, though I’ve never replied, I assume they want me to wire them the rent for a house that either doesn’t exist of is currently occupied by the real owners. It’s aggravating. So to help others, I’m putting a list together of what the craigslist ad says and what it really means.

They say                                                                                                       They mean              

Great neighborhood                                  it’s either the north or east side. Avoid at all costs

Cozy home                                                    more than 3 people will not fit inside this house

I want to work with you no matter your credit           “your credit score is what?????” *click*

I will delete this post when I’ve rented the house       “I’m sorry the place was rented months ago”

Dogs and cats welcome                                           *couch cough* $500 deposit for each

Rent to own or just rent                                          “you have to put 5000 down, I only rent to own”

Great place, won’t last long                                      see its posted daily for the last 5 months

3 bedrooms                                                             that hallway is big enough to call it a bedroom

"Beautiful house, needs TLC but perfect starter home..."

So now you know. I know, I know, this isn’t a very ‘housewifey’ post but since this is the place I will be doing my future housewifing in, I thought it counted. Plus I only have one blog so I guess I may put slightly irrelevant posts on here from time to time. Hopefully we do find the house of our dreams, in the neighborhood we want, at a price we can live with….though if I see a post on craigslist saying those words…I may not click on it. House hunting…the adventure continues.