Finding our FL rental home.
SO starts the search for a residence in FL. We cannot get a pre-approval for a mortgage without employment, so we started looking for a rental. Our haphazard search started near the college, where we picked up a classifieds and began to call around. I drew a kind of map, like a target, the college in the center and the towns working out from it along the highway. The college town we knew would be a bust. Two towns outward were both VERY expensive and either did not allow dogs or only allowed them under 25lbs. This actually became the catch point of the day. I began opening with "What is the max weight on your pet policy?" We crossed off everything that listed "No Pets" and "Apt". Something with a yard for our 85lb puppy.
First place to return our call and allow Rook was a "fourplex" 45 minutes from the school. I dug the twisty tree out front, and the wee planter, but right off the bat there was no yard. We could get her out and through the ball most likely. All the doors were painted pastel as easter eggs colors. The inside was small, murky, dirty, definitely nowhere I would have paid for, and definitely not that much. Strike one. After a while longer calling around and striking out I called one place that turned out to be a realtor/agent guy. We headed over to meet him (hoping he had more resources than my quickly useless classifieds.)
A long while short, he found us a couple places. He flipped through them on his computer, showing us the ones that are "no homeowners association" and allowed pets. Shane can read the garbledee so he kept an eye on the scrolling. We were only going to be able to see two of the properties, a house and a duplex.
The house was a neat 50s bit with an addon. I liked the quaintness of it and it came with a HUGE yard. It was a grand a month, harsh for the small space, but if it was the best I found I was willing to work around it for the yard. Shane hated it, it was just too small. Next was the duplex. Just driving through the neighborhood worried it. As we drove in there was a dumpster that had stilled its guts all over the curb. The front dirt of the neighbors were impregnated with beer bottle caps. The whole place just felt dirty outside. Inside it was nicer, yet not a whole lot. The kitchen was huge, papered pretty nicely, and the floors were all tile. Everything felt slipshod though. There was a water pipe through the master bedroom closet held up by twist ties. The backyard wasn't ours, it was a huge green expanse for all the duplexes there. Once again, we'd be able to get Rook in the space, but if someone minded? Stuck in a lease without a yard for the puppy. We weren't going to able to see the townhouse he had pegged for us, but said he could tomorrow. We were tired, it was only 4pm but we'd gotten up at 530a and driven hours; we sat in the car digging through newspapers, sigh.
We called around for the cheapest place to stay with Wi-Fi (trying to expand the search out of the classifieds) and ended up at the LaQuinta. Fighting not to just give up and nap the rest of the day I kept at the classifieds and was going to send husband out for eats. I called a duplex who told me the key was under the mat out front, and we could look at it at our leisure. Figuring we might as well not stop now, we headed out. Buuuuuut I was hungry. The LaQuinta offered 10% off at Sweet Tomatoes next door. I pigged out on strawberry arugala salad and just about everything else. I officially love this place. We stuffed outselves before making it out to the duplex.
I called another add while we were on the way. The weird thing was that the guy gave me the same info for the place we were on the way too... Key under the mat, even gave me directions to the first place. We were so creeped out that when we got there Shane went in first while I waited in the car with my cell phone and pepper spray. Probably should be joking on the way that we were going to get hacked up into tiny pieces. The house itself was GORGEOUS. Fantastic grassy yard (tons of green, huge, omg green). Last house @a dead end (only 1 neighbor!) A great looking neighborhood (very runnable! Even by myself.) Tile throughout the living/kitchen. Old carpets in the bedrooms. No ceiling fans (in Florida?). Duplex neighbor has kids (we think, they weren't there). All white kitchen was plain but workable. we left in love with the place.
We headed a house address in the classifieds which turned out to be down the street. 3b2b, huge house, 1000 a month. Everything was very similar to the duplex we were just at. Freshly painted, loved the woody cabinets, beautiful back yard. The only issue was that the extra bedroom meant the extra 200 a month, and if we didn't need it we would prefer to go without it. We discovered this place was owned by the same people who owned the first and they owned another duplex! We couldn't get into that one at night because we couldn't find the key, so we went back to the hotel and pretty much passed out. Such a long day. Enjoyed their continental breakfast in the morning.
We called the property manager of the places we were looking at and figured out how to check out the other duplex. Big grassy yard, but no trees. All tile floors! Ceiling fans in every room. Tan papered cabinets in kitchen (nice looking). House is more 'finished' than the other duplex. Missing baseboard under dishwasher revealed icky god-knows-what... Duplex neighbor has lots of cars parked out front (3?) but the neighborhood looks ok (less nice, still runnable). The thing that hitched me about this property was the backyard. It was huge, green grass, had a paverstone bbq thing in the center. However, the fence was rickety and needed more nails to keep the corner from flapping. There were also powerlines or something hanging over the yard only about 8ft up, and a huge coil of them on the floppy fence corner. Shane says these would be fixed by the power companies, but they kept bugging me.
We talked to the realtor guy who was helping us the day before and decided that even though the townhouse looked nice, if we could get one of these places with a yard we would prefer it. He seemed to try to warn us out of the neighborhoods "around" the area we said we were looking. Shane didn't seem bothered by it but it kind of put me off. We got in touch with the guy who owned those other properties and tried to decide between the Tree House and the Tile House. We ended up applying for the Tile House. I hate deciding in a time crunch.
We drove home happy to have made a decision, but it bugged me all weekend. Husband reassured me I'd be second-guessing myself either way. This morning I was even more sure we made the wrong decision. I woke feeling very ill and irritatable but we had to get back to sign the lease. LONG day short, we did a lot of driving, and crammed a lot of stress and waiting into the hours between 9am and 9pm. After driving all the way there I got ahold of the property manager and asked if we could switch to the Tree House. They told me the decision might have to wait til the next day (omg another day of driving?) They ended up getting back to us within ten minutes... We got it!! This wee keyboard cannot capture how happy I am about it. We snagged up lunch at Publix (fantastic subs I say.) We drove to the place we needed to sign the lease and read every detail. I had to fix each page from my maiden name to my married, since they used my AZ DL for my background check and it still has my maiden name on it. We signed it and had to wait for it to be faxed. In that time they gave us the key so I started calling the utility companies. We got the electricity on. Then we discovered the property manager hadn't signed the lease. They wanted me to sign an addendum that my married name and my maiden name are the same person. Ok... so I got that done and had it refaxed. This time it came back signed. We head to Boynton Beach to get the water on (have to do that in person.) We stood in line for half an hour behind a bubble head blonde to do our five minutes of work, and then had to drive all the way back to make sure all the doors on our new home were locked and all the faucents off. We still have some calls to make but we have a beautiful home!!
I drove home so Shane could sleep, but he still crashed when we got home, feeling ill. I'm still feeling ill, actually fighting my gorge while I type, but I'm behind and this is very important to me :P So there. It's done. Now to throw the pix in and crash. OI. Two days break before we pack the UHaul and move.. again. I hope I'm ok to Hike tomorrow. I wont be up to run, so I want to do that at least.
First place to return our call and allow Rook was a "fourplex" 45 minutes from the school. I dug the twisty tree out front, and the wee planter, but right off the bat there was no yard. We could get her out and through the ball most likely. All the doors were painted pastel as easter eggs colors. The inside was small, murky, dirty, definitely nowhere I would have paid for, and definitely not that much. Strike one. After a while longer calling around and striking out I called one place that turned out to be a realtor/agent guy. We headed over to meet him (hoping he had more resources than my quickly useless classifieds.)A long while short, he found us a couple places. He flipped through them on his computer, showing us the ones that are "no homeowners association" and allowed pets. Shane can read the garbledee so he kept an eye on the scrolling. We were only going to be able to see two of the properties, a house and a duplex.
The house was a neat 50s bit with an addon. I liked the quaintness of it and it came with a HUGE yard. It was a grand a month, harsh for the small space, but if it was the best I found I was willing to work around it for the yard. Shane hated it, it was just too small. Next was the duplex. Just driving through the neighborhood worried it. As we drove in there was a dumpster that had stilled its guts all over the curb. The front dirt of the neighbors were impregnated with beer bottle caps. The whole place just felt dirty outside. Inside it was nicer, yet not a whole lot. The kitchen was huge, papered pretty nicely, and the floors were all tile. Everything felt slipshod though. There was a water pipe through the master bedroom closet held up by twist ties. The backyard wasn't ours, it was a huge green expanse for all the duplexes there. Once again, we'd be able to get Rook in the space, but if someone minded? Stuck in a lease without a yard for the puppy. We weren't going to able to see the townhouse he had pegged for us, but said he could tomorrow. We were tired, it was only 4pm but we'd gotten up at 530a and driven hours; we sat in the car digging through newspapers, sigh.
We called around for the cheapest place to stay with Wi-Fi (trying to expand the search out of the classifieds) and ended up at the LaQuinta. Fighting not to just give up and nap the rest of the day I kept at the classifieds and was going to send husband out for eats. I called a duplex who told me the key was under the mat out front, and we could look at it at our leisure. Figuring we might as well not stop now, we headed out. Buuuuuut I was hungry. The LaQuinta offered 10% off at Sweet Tomatoes next door. I pigged out on strawberry arugala salad and just about everything else. I officially love this place. We stuffed outselves before making it out to the duplex.
I called another add while we were on the way. The weird thing was that the guy gave me the same info for the place we were on the way too... Key under the mat, even gave me directions to the first place. We were so creeped out that when we got there Shane went in first while I waited in the car with my cell phone and pepper spray. Probably should be joking on the way that we were going to get hacked up into tiny pieces. The house itself was GORGEOUS. Fantastic grassy yard (tons of green, huge, omg green). Last house @a dead end (only 1 neighbor!) A great looking neighborhood (very runnable! Even by myself.) Tile throughout the living/kitchen. Old carpets in the bedrooms. No ceiling fans (in Florida?). Duplex neighbor has kids (we think, they weren't there). All white kitchen was plain but workable. we left in love with the place.
We headed a house address in the classifieds which turned out to be down the street. 3b2b, huge house, 1000 a month. Everything was very similar to the duplex we were just at. Freshly painted, loved the woody cabinets, beautiful back yard. The only issue was that the extra bedroom meant the extra 200 a month, and if we didn't need it we would prefer to go without it. We discovered this place was owned by the same people who owned the first and they owned another duplex! We couldn't get into that one at night because we couldn't find the key, so we went back to the hotel and pretty much passed out. Such a long day. Enjoyed their continental breakfast in the morning.
We called the property manager of the places we were looking at and figured out how to check out the other duplex. Big grassy yard, but no trees. All tile floors! Ceiling fans in every room. Tan papered cabinets in kitchen (nice looking). House is more 'finished' than the other duplex. Missing baseboard under dishwasher revealed icky god-knows-what... Duplex neighbor has lots of cars parked out front (3?) but the neighborhood looks ok (less nice, still runnable). The thing that hitched me about this property was the backyard. It was huge, green grass, had a paverstone bbq thing in the center. However, the fence was rickety and needed more nails to keep the corner from flapping. There were also powerlines or something hanging over the yard only about 8ft up, and a huge coil of them on the floppy fence corner. Shane says these would be fixed by the power companies, but they kept bugging me.
We talked to the realtor guy who was helping us the day before and decided that even though the townhouse looked nice, if we could get one of these places with a yard we would prefer it. He seemed to try to warn us out of the neighborhoods "around" the area we said we were looking. Shane didn't seem bothered by it but it kind of put me off. We got in touch with the guy who owned those other properties and tried to decide between the Tree House and the Tile House. We ended up applying for the Tile House. I hate deciding in a time crunch.
We drove home happy to have made a decision, but it bugged me all weekend. Husband reassured me I'd be second-guessing myself either way. This morning I was even more sure we made the wrong decision. I woke feeling very ill and irritatable but we had to get back to sign the lease. LONG day short, we did a lot of driving, and crammed a lot of stress and waiting into the hours between 9am and 9pm. After driving all the way there I got ahold of the property manager and asked if we could switch to the Tree House. They told me the decision might have to wait til the next day (omg another day of driving?) They ended up getting back to us within ten minutes... We got it!! This wee keyboard cannot capture how happy I am about it. We snagged up lunch at Publix (fantastic subs I say.) We drove to the place we needed to sign the lease and read every detail. I had to fix each page from my maiden name to my married, since they used my AZ DL for my background check and it still has my maiden name on it. We signed it and had to wait for it to be faxed. In that time they gave us the key so I started calling the utility companies. We got the electricity on. Then we discovered the property manager hadn't signed the lease. They wanted me to sign an addendum that my married name and my maiden name are the same person. Ok... so I got that done and had it refaxed. This time it came back signed. We head to Boynton Beach to get the water on (have to do that in person.) We stood in line for half an hour behind a bubble head blonde to do our five minutes of work, and then had to drive all the way back to make sure all the doors on our new home were locked and all the faucents off. We still have some calls to make but we have a beautiful home!!
I drove home so Shane could sleep, but he still crashed when we got home, feeling ill. I'm still feeling ill, actually fighting my gorge while I type, but I'm behind and this is very important to me :P So there. It's done. Now to throw the pix in and crash. OI. Two days break before we pack the UHaul and move.. again. I hope I'm ok to Hike tomorrow. I wont be up to run, so I want to do that at least.
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