The whole thought of looking for a place to live makes me want to curl up

[XemaSab]

and DIE! :cry:

[Ellen Forradalom]

1. You're in Santa Barbara right?

An especially unenviable task here. I just did it myself. :hug:

[XemaSab]

4. Yeah I am

Do you know of any place?

Wanna go get lunch sometime??? :bounce:

[Ellen Forradalom]

7. Depends

You male or female?

And sure let's get lunch! I'm on Olive Street close to the freeway. You?

[XemaSab]

10. I am female

And I am staying at a hotel off Turnpike.

:P

[Ellen Forradalom]

16. Are you clean, respectable, employed?

PM me.

[maveric]

2. I'm trying to move from the shithole I live in now...

to a place closer to the beach. The property management companies control ALL the damn rentals here and without pristine credit they wont even talk to you.
I have no debt, money in the bank and a stellar rental record, but unless you have a "perfect" credit rating and credit card debt(thats what one PM co. told me), you wont be approved to rent.
God forbid I ever get evicted.

[Darth_Kitten]

14. God, what IS it with perfect credit?

I have a stellar rental record, a secure job, but because I had less than stellar credit, I needed a guarantor on my lease. (I filed a consumer proposal to make my debts more managable, it works fine for me, but alas, it goes on your credit report)

Too much emphasis is put on having perfect credit. A lot of good, honest people have less than a great credit record, and they shouldn't have to settle for crappy places to live. :mad:

Sorry, I'm ambushing other people's threads tonight and projecting all my own anxieties/issues. very sorry. :)

[billyskank]

3. Awwww don't

:hug:

[XemaSab]

5. .

:hug:

[ghostsofgiants]

6. Yeah, I have to find a new place in September.

x(

Not fun.

[GOPisEvil]

8. Gee...looking for a place in Santa Barbara...

How horrid...






:P

[Ellen Forradalom]

9. Thing is

they won't rent to you if you have so much as a zit on your face--and then you get write heart-stoppingly huge checks.

[XemaSab]

11. Do YOU want to spend $1200 a month for a tiny shithole?

Me either....

[BlueStateBlue]

12. I'm going through the same thing in northern NJ, NYC suburbs

No fun.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't think it's too much to ask to be able to do laundry under your own roof in the twenty-first century in America.

Just sayin'.

[Nailzberg]

13. I hear ya.

I live in part of Hollywood that I find terribly depressing, and my neighbors suck, too. But I've been putting off trying to find a new place for some time now, cause it's just so daunting. I did just find a summer sublease in a much nicer part of LA, and am moving some stuff there slowly but surely this week. (Three carloads thus far.) But at the end of the summer, I'm apartment hunting again.

In my case, I have been so depressed about my living situation that just the thought of being in a new place next week makes me feel more functional in my daily life. So when I have to move again in three months, at least I'll be in a positive mindset.

As a matter of fact, I think I'm gonna bring my table over there right now, cause every trip I make, the better I feel.

[Darth_Kitten]

15. Best of Luck to you....

:hug:

[retrospective66]

17. Yes..... I echo all

Good Luck! :-)

[EFerrari]

18. I'm in charge of renting the unit below my condo and the thought

of interviewing prospective tenants makes me want to curl up and die.

:cry:

[Darth_Kitten]

19. Hey, but you have some control......

can you not lease to nasty people? :evilgrin:

[EFerrari]

20. Well, do I?

My last guy didn't pay rent for 2 of 4 months. He told me he was handicapped and I let him move in early, and mommyed him and when he left, he left his canes behind! I am SO not kidding!

Damn, I CURED HIM!

LOL!

[faithnotgreed]

21. clearly i need to live in said unit

all this time weve been chatting here and who knew you were
in fact
the miracle worker

thats so funny
or sad

he must have moved to a place where canes were provided

[EFerrari]

22. Sad. Very sad even while very funny. Because as my family

has had experience with homlessness, I could have whatEVER.

Sometimes the bear eats you.

[faithnotgreed]

23. yes indeed

i know weve spoken about homelessness/poverty and all its many arms

how lovely/interesting that you are responsible for filling up that spot
how karmic

im glad its in your able hands
even though i hear you dont look forward to it but at least you have a beautiful heart. and you just never know who you may help along the way in this wild world.....

so maybe you did cure him after all (or the next person who moves in may just need those crutches)
best wishes

[EFerrari]

28. I hate to be SUCH a weenie.

I never realized how intimately intrusive that whole landlord/tenant thing is.

May you find just the right mixture of a responsible landlord who also knows how to do the job invisibly.

[faithnotgreed]

29. yes it really can be

wishing you the best in your tenant search as well

im thankful to be pretty settled in a very small but quiet apt here in the city but i have lived where a manager or landlord lives in the same small building which does require good communication and boundaries (and everything else that you already know)

if i may ask
whats the approx size/rent
im not moving out to california anytime soon but just out of wondering what rent is really like out there

[EFerrari]

30. It's insane. Completely crazy. 600+/- sq ft and 1395.

And that just covers the basics, mort + taxes.

Doug needs to be here or I'd have scrammed long ago.

Mayor Newsom claims that homelessness is down 38% since he took office. I'm still seeing my same friends out here.

/%

[faithnotgreed]

31. definitely understand

i recall that you said your husband needed to be there so im glad thats worked out
and to be able to rent out space can be wonderful so again im glad you have that option
i realize its not without a lot of work but since it allows your family that protection against the outside economy im glad for you

thanks for the rental information
thats about the size apt i have but im really lucky in so many ways
one is that we have 3 cats (was 4) and this old apt has doors between all the "rooms" so that we can keep the little ones separate as needed

andi know sf area has a large population of homeless so i really sympathize with that
as we have discussed its one of those life situations that does not compute with me
it is literally unbelievable to me that its so accepted within our culture

just to have said this again - thank you so much for the deep care and compassion you have
i know its a personal thing with you but even so it takes a strong and loving person to be involved with something that real and painful

best wishes in your tenant search
there are many times i wouldnt mind being in berkeley/sf area (arcata is actually one of my ideal places) but i know there is also a lot of indulgent wealth as well (which everywhere has of course)
but any community that truly cares and is trying to do so many wonderful things on such a grassroots level gets a lot of love from me

i have never been to california but i dream of the bay area/santa cruz/arcata
its best intentions speak to me

[NJCher]

24. I had one of those

Only difference is he didn't pay rent for six months, which is how long it took to get the court system to throw him out.

So that's why landlords insist on pristine credit: the risks are that high. A landlord can easily bite the dust on $11 grand in no time at all. The laws in this country are of no help in collecting the back rent, either.




Cher

[EFerrari]

27. Maybe it's no big deal to someone but for us, it's losing

the property if things go badly. Losing what it took the whole family working for years and years to buy as insurance against a bad economy or a greedy crazy @ssed government.

[LSK]

25. that sucks

You finally get a job but it doesnt pay to afford the rent.

What about getting a trailer?

Sleep at work for a while? Tent camping on the beach?

:shrug:

[NMMNG]

26. I feel for you

I'm apartment hunting myself and it bites. x(