After weeks of waiting for our apartment renewal notice, it came. They upped our rent just as we feared they would. Again. Luckily it was only $30 per month this time vs $55. But even $30 a month is just ridiculous.
Like before, they did it at a time where half of our building sits vacant. I started to look up homes for rent and ran across advertisements by my complex offering incentives to new renters. They are even offering our apartment for a cheaper rate.
So, seeing that ticked me off more. I responded to a few ads on Craigslist for homes for rent only to find that 99.9% of them were offered by Realtors. After my short sale, I don’t do well with Realtors.
I took a chance and set up a few appointments with a few Realtors anyway because they seem to dominate the rental market now. Where the heck are the private owners advertising nowadays anyway?
Our first appointment was suppose to be a 2/2 condo: dogs and kids allowed, private entrance on the 2nd floor, nice…
The Realtor brought us to a 1/1 no dogs, no kids allowed, on the first floor smack in the middle of a busy hallway. Yeah, I knew the day was going downhill from there. And it did. That condo never existed, neither did any of the properties that were advertised. It was more like “Oh yeah, that one is taken but let me show you this one”.
I later found out from a coworker that dated a Realtor that these are pretty much “bait ads”. They were bait alright. Wasted my weekend. Now that I am hip to this practice, I see it clearly. If you are looking for a new home on a site like Craigslist where it is free to post classifieds like real estate and rentals, proceed with caution.
With our move-out date fast approaching and little money to deal with as far as 1st month, last month, security, and a pet deposit, I have a feeling we are going to have to stay here for a while and pay the extra money. Unless we find a private owner to work with us. I did send an email off to our existing rental office though in a last ditch effort and asked them one last time if they wanted to deal. We’ll see.
I tell ya, I am so sick of moving. I drove by my old house the other day on the way home from work and realized how much I miss having my own home. I did not have an attachment to the house because of all the debt that came along with it; but if I had it now, boy would I appreciate it. Especially after living in these past 3 apartments.
Renting is OK. Not better than having your own home. I wont even begin to complain about our apartment because I know there are some people these days living out of their cars and on the streets, things could be worse.
We’ll just have to see how this one plays out.
Tags: renting in a bad economy
