Rent

The last time we looked for a place to rent, it was 1998.  We were moving to South Florida, and we needed a place to live while we figured out where to buy.  We bought the Sunday newspaper (printed with ink, on paper!) and scoured the want ads.  We drove to addresses and called a landlord or two.  We had five days to find a place, and on the last day, we found the perfect place, the end unit of a triplex, with a landlady who seemed reasonable, who wanted a month to month renter.

We had to pay first and last month's rent, plus the sum of a month's rent for the security deposit.  We thought it was expensive, but it was a larger rent than we had ever paid, so we thought those extra expenses might be standard.  Little did we know, it was just South Florida, where everything is more expensive.

We gave the potential landlady a list of references, but I'd be surprised if she called them.  I think we looked like nice people, we had a check that cleared the bank, and she could get rid of us if need be.

The world has changed.  I've spent the last few days looking at the realtor.com site and the websites of apartment communities, looking at places to rent.  In some ways, it feels like the same process, in that it leaves me exhausted.  In some ways, we save ourselves some steps--there are often pictures on the site, which have led me to eliminate some of the options.

And I've realized the power of a good website/pictures.  We drove around some of the bigger apartment complexes yesterday, and I said, "Where's the resort style pool?  Where's the lakeside beach?"

I was also astonished at the renting practices of some of these corporate places.  They want a lot of information, including proof that the renters earn three times the amount of the rent each month.  These rents aren't cheap--who is making this kind of salary?  And for this rent, I should get more than one parking space.

In the end, we came back to possibilities not too far away from our current neighborhood.  We know it's walkable, we know about the noise, we know about the potential.  You might ask why we're selling or thinking about the process of selling.

Like many parts of the country, our seller's market in real estate is blisteringly hot right now.  We don't expect it to last, and while we're not expecting a crash like the last time we had this kind of market, we are expecting prices to fall.  And at some point in the next 5 years, we were likely to sell, so we're leaning towards selling now as opposed to later.  

We are also lucky in that we can adjust to a rental fairly easily.  We have no pets or children, so we don't have some of the considerations that others do.  We don't have lots of extra vehicles or big/noisy vehicles that might be prohibited at a rental.

We are lucky, but it's still rather overwhelming.  Let me take deep breaths and continue in the path that makes sense given the information that we have now.