I\u2019ve been having nightmares about house hunting.<\/p>\n
I won\u2019t go into details, but one involved a cannibalistic vampire realtor. Another involved a duplex in which the other side was a Jack-in-the-Box and another involved a studio in Downtown Long Beach with a communal bathroom and no shower curtains. Terrifying.<\/p>\n
House, apartment, dwelling, box, whatever you want to call it\u2014hunting has seeped into every part of my life: In my spare time I frantically scroll through rental websites ready to pounce on desirable units as soon as they come available; I spend my weekends setting up showings, smiling pleasantly at other prospective renters looking at the unit I want, but in my head thinking, \u201cI will crush you.\u201d<\/p>\n
It shouldn\u2019t be this hard. Then again, I\u2019ve never experienced the full force of Long Beach\u2019s rental market: I found our current place through a friend of a friend\u2019s landlord and we didn\u2019t have to compete for it.<\/p>\n
But now we have to be out by June 1 and the competition is cutthroat and the listings barren.<\/p>\n
I’ll find a place listed and it’ll seem perfect:<\/p>\n
2 bedrooms\u2014”Yes!”<\/p>\n
Garage parking\u2014”Oh, Heck Yes.”<\/p>\n
Small yard\u2014”Yaaaas.”<\/p>\n
NO pets<\/strong>\u2014”Insert expletives.”<\/p>\n We have one cat. He is a good cat and he’s also our baby. A home without Jones is no home at all. But landlords seem to hate cats and dogs\u2014even if you give them an extra deposit. Which begs the question: where the heck do all these people who walk around Long Beach with their cute dogs live?<\/p>\n Two weeks ago, we thought we had a little duplex in Rose Park, which we affectionately dubbed \u201cTiny House.\u201d It was enthusiastically pet-friendly. I was the first one there, the leasing agent seemed to like me, we got our application in the same day and I had a \u201creally<\/i> good feeling about this one.\u201d<\/p>\n The owners didn\u2019t care. They didn\u2019t pick us despite our great credit scores and sparkling personalities.<\/p>\n So now we hunt. Day and night, we hunt. And now I\u2019ll share this desperate hunt with you all because how else do you spend your weekends in Long Beach?<\/p>\n Last week I set up three showings for Saturday morning. By Friday, one showing\u2014the unit we thought we were going to end up picking\u2014canceled because they filled it.<\/p>\n Cut. Throat.<\/p>\n So I found another and was able to set up a different showing. Our criteria isn\u2019t that ridiculous (at least I don’t think so): we want a two-bedroom, one-bathroom, pet-friendly<\/b> home with parking and some type of outdoor space (a balcony works) and ideally<\/i> in-unit laundry for $2,000 or less and in a neighborhood where it\u2019s reasonable for me to bike to work.<\/p>\n The first unit we saw, a pretty Spanish style duplex in Wrigley, had prospective renters and buyers crawling all over it. The owners of the duplex were not only trying to find tenants for one of the units but were also trying to sell the building. So after a year lease, the new owners could kick us out, hike up the rent or do whatever they wanted.<\/p>\n The first: a Spanish duplex in Wrigley. 2 bed\/1 bath, $1995 per month. There’s a ton of people also looking at it. Idk if I’m willing to throw down for this one yet pic.twitter.com\/KFtrBHzVaU<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Valerie Osier (@ValerieOsier) May 4, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n