Disappointment

I had hoped that today I would be sharing the best news with all of you.  I had hoped that today was going to be the day that I got to shout from the rooftops that Ammon and I had completed one of our big goals for the year.  And instead, I'm left here writing this feeling bitter disappointment at how our circumstances have turned out.

Ammon and I have wanted to move out of our current apartment for quite some time now.  I could give a laundry list of reasons why (not the least of which is coin operated laundry.  Oy), but suffice it to say that there are many things about our present situation that just plain don't work for us, and haven't for a long time.  We have tried to make the best of our current living situation, because it truly has been a blessing for us.  We have paid minimal rent, had our utilities included in that minimal rent, and I have been the best darn landlord to us that a couple could ask for.  However, now that Ammon has a job, and I'm not doing the Property Management stuff anymore, we finally felt like we were in a position to move.  We started our Craigslist hunt, knowing that the flexibility of our current rental would be a saving grace for us, since we can move whenever the right thing comes along.  So we set a budget, and our list of must-haves for a rental.  We knew that with 2 pets, in order to find a place that would take us in a market that has less than a 1% vacancy rate we were going to have to dig deep and do some serious searching.

The first house that we thought we had found was a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom house with a fenced yard and a one car detached garage.  It is owned by the Professor Ammon did his Lab Assistant work with, and it was a screaming deal that included all of the utilities.  We told him we were interested, and he told us that when he had more info, he would let us know.  So we waited, and waited, and waited a little bit more.  Only to find out that he'd forgotten about us, and already had new residents lined up for the place.  Womp, womp, but we weren't TOO heartbroken... it was missing several of the things we really wanted in a home, and we felt that there were options out there that were better for our current position.

 

So back to the Craigslist we went, undeterred (okay, maybe a little bit down in the dumps.  It doesn't feel good to be forgotten), to search again.  And lo and behold, I found the cutest little 2 bed, 2 bath bungalow style home with laundry room, fully finished basement, fenced back yard, one car garage, and a generous kitchen.  Additionally, it was a lease assignment, meaning that we would take over someone's lease until it ran out at the end of July, then have the option to renew from there.  We were sold.  I set up our showing for Saturday afternoon, well after the 5k so that we could be fresh and ready for this opportunity.

From the first moment, we fell in love with the house.  It was exactly what we were looking for, the location was perfect, and it fell right in line with our budget.  We could see ourselves living there.  The current residents warned us that there had been a high volume of showings, and that our best bet was to show up at the Property Management Company first thing Monday morning with checkbook in hand, and our applications signed and ready.  Since this is not my first rodeo when it comes to renting out abodes, I knew they weren't kidding around.  So I made arrangements to not only be there when they opened, but to get there early Monday morning to beat any potential crowds.

What I never saw coming was that someone would be brazen enough to tape their applications, plus a PERSONAL CHECK to the front door of the management company over the weekend.  I mean, really... who in their right minds does that???  And as the Managing broker was sharing this with me, it was all I could do to not break down in tears.  I had started packing boxes.  I had started planning our move, and how we could orchestrate everything on such short notice.  I was so ready, I was practically living in that house already.  And just like that, it was gone.

When I called to tell Ammon, I could tell that he felt just as let down by the whole thing as I did.

I really tried to not let it ruin my whole day, but the truth is that it did.  We needed this house.  We needed this opportunity.  It was time.  We agreed over the weekend that, if for some reason it folded, we would stay where we are and hold off looking again until August.  It is like a kick in the gut to have to suck it up and live with all of the things that aren't working for us for 4-6 more months, and try to make the best of it.

The one upside?  We continue to have dirt cheap rent through the summer.  That's something, at least.