A New Beginning

A New Home

I finally found a new home today. Six months of looking to get here. Six months of searching Craigslist for a house, like an addict jonesing for a fix. There are too few houses on the market with far too many displaced families looking to fill vacancies. The competition was unbelievable. With only days to spare, my search is over, and I signed my 12 month lease today on a 4 bedroom, 2 bath, 1700 square foot older home, in a very nice neighborhood. Does it have a pool, or air conditioning? Uh, no. But it does have a very sweet landlord who decided to take a chance on me. I didn’t know how much more rejection I could take.

He told me that in 24 years of owning and renting this house out, he had never seen this many people come through looking for a rental. Just yesterday, three separate people who looked at the house, also lost their homes in foreclosure.

Yes, I have to move because I lost my house in foreclosure. I still find it hard to believe. The bank who now owns my home gave me until the end of May before turning me out. I was almost to the point of placing all my things into storage and renting a small apartment in a less than desirable part of town. When I bought this house I thought I would be here until my kids graduated from high school, at least, but life has an interesting way of changing my plans.

My journey to a new home has been grueling, even ugly. I can’t remember how many days involved tears of despair. I heard it all, no foreclosure applicants, no children, no dogs. One landlord literally wanted two years worth of paystubs even if you no longer worked for that job (wha?... who keeps those?...). Another one said they didn’t count income from unemployment, child support, disability, or any kind of assistance program. Another wouldn’t take an application if I didn’t have a land based telephone number. But, mostly I was just simply told that they had thought about it and decided to rent to someone else. Despair, and rejection ensued.

I was so desperate that I even made a rental application kit which included:

• Pictures of me and my family
• A thorough list of my extensive commercial lease history since I’ve never rented residential properties before
• My exhausting credit explanation letter
• Character reference letters complete with photos of each person
• A 'dog resume' detailing the training and accomplishments of my 10 yr old golden retriever,Cody
• I actually asked for and included letters from my neighbors to say what a good neighbor I’ve been! ... how humiliating

I was ready to add letters from my college professors and my straight A transcripts. I couldn't help remembering the scene in Forest Gump where Forest's mom cared so much for his education that she slept with the school principal to keep Forest from being expelled. I might have resorted to this if I thought it would have helped!

In the past, if I wanted to rent a building or a property I just told the leasing agent what my terms were. When I purchased homes I always had the down payment and financing done on my terms, well in advance. No begging necessary. I’m not used to being denied what I ask for. This is a hard way to live. I hope I don’t have to live like this for too long.

I haven’t told my kids yet. They will be very sad to move and leave their schools and friends behind, but, it’s a new beginning.