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Tap my personal experience in the community and in real estate to learn more about the market, the area, and the choices you face.
Blog for "Stresses of Renting a House" Part 2
So you have found a rental property and you decide that this will work for you, so you schedule a mover Right? Here is where you must check reputation, price and reliability because all the movers are different in that respect. I had one company schedule an appointment to come to our house and give a written estimate of cost and time involved and they never showed up. They never called back. It is kind of scary when you know the day is quickly approaching and you don't have it locked down! Fortunately, the second mover came as scheduled, provided a written estimate and checked all the rooms for furniture to be moved including the basement, garage and patio.
When you move to a rental house most likely you will take some items over prior to the big move such as fine china, crystal vases or personal things you want to handle yourself. Fine because it gives you the opportunity to visualize each room and the placement of large furniture. We found it very helpful to have each box marked per room with name or color so that we knew they were in the right place and could be opened later. It is extremely frustrating to find heavy boxes in the garage that must be moved to the secong story after the fact.
So in the new house you aim to become normal again and normal to us is talking to neighbors and letting them know that we have a dog named Greta and a cat named Moses. We want them to become aware of what our habits are as far as work hours or cars in drive because it is a safety factor as well. More importantly we want our fellow neighbors to include us in activities as picnics, women's club or togethers because involvement is part of a community or subdivision. We join in the activities that are offered and we volunteer to do things for the neighborhood. We will talk about Part three at a later date
January 24th, 2011
Blog for “Stresses of Renting a House” Part 1
As the date of Nov 4, 2008 approached and the foreclosure appeared to be very real, my husband and I knew that renting a house would be our only option. Roger is a mechanic by trade and hobbywise with over 1000sq ft of tools, equipment and parts that have accumulated for years just waiting to be used. Box after box, container after container and bag after bag all filled with drill bits, screws and nails have been neatly packed and waiting for a new basement or garage. Stacks of airplane parts and automobile devices filled every corner of the property. We needed space for this shop and soon.
Nov 4th was also the 20th wedding anniversary of our marriage and of course one likes to think that that date would be made memorable and we would celebrate in a nice restaurant with champagne. Not likely in the year 2008 would that ever happen. Oh and did I mention the fact that I was co hostess for the garden club meeting that morning at 10am? I had to impress 20 superior bakers and cooks with my skill in the kitchen and well as my knowledge of the garden.
Now that you have the picture of stress in color here is what we needed to do in the next several days. We had to find an affordable space large enough to accommodate hundreds of metal tools, compressors and saws because we could not get rid of anything! We also had a gorgeous collie and a cute cat that we would not part with for any money. Believe it or not we found a suitable 2 story home reminiscent of our lovely Buckhead house with a basement. The payments went from $4500 mo to $1500mo so at least we could afford this. Good news is my husband had retired from the airlines and was working part time for Cobb county schools helping special needs children get off and on school bus early in the morning and late at night. So it was the perfect location to schools and my husband could almost walk to work if need be. He had been helping the children for 6 years and didn’t want to quit.
We found a home and since the owners had relocated to SouthGA for work they were really excited to have us lease their house. They were tired of making those payments, keeping the lawn cut and paying utilities for nothing. No problem dog welcome or so the listing printout said. “Fenced back yard for dog”. Cat ok as listing continued “Pets allowed”. Apparently the pet exhibit never got attached to the lease and that caused major problem with owner at move out time. It is never a problem when they need you and your rent check but only after the fact when they don’t want you. Stay tuned for Part 2