Another Nasty House

So today my husband and I planned to go by this house and view it so that we could call the landlord and tell her we wanted to see the inside of it.  Now just to give you some background, I found the house on Craigslist.com and what I usually do is type the address in google maps and get a neighborhood view of the house and the street it's on so I can see if it's hood or in a nice neighborhood.  Sometimes I can just tell by the map and other times I have to physically look at the house.  So when I called the landlord yesterday she explained to me that she wanted me to go and look at the house first on the outside and then call her back so she could set up an appointment to see the inside of the house.  I then explained to her that I had seen the neighborhood on Google Earth and that I already knew what the outside looked like so I wanted to go ahead and set up an appointment to see the inside of the house.  She then told me that she still wanted me to physically drive over there first and then call her because she lives outside of Greensboro and every time she sends someone over to show the house, she has to pay them and she doesn't want to waste her money if the perspective tenant doesn't like what they see.  So I was like ok, so that's why went over there.  So we went there and we first noticed that the front porch looked really old and paint was chipping off and to tell you the truth, the rest of the houses on that street looked way newer than this one.  It was almost like a developer came on the street and paid everyone who had old houses off to build a new development and this particular owner decided to keep their old dilapidated house.  So then we drive to the back of the driveway and notice that there's trash in the yard.  Also the landlord mentioned before something about a tree and the fence not being completely around the house so we look and at the back of the back yard, there is a huge tree that has fallen onto a piece of the fence and crushed it.  In short, this lady hasn't picked any trash up, raked any leaves, mowed the grass, fixed the tree and fence, etc...  Now keep in mind this house has been advertised for months for rent so she's had plenty of time to fix it up.  So then I called her and of course it went straight to voicemail and I left a message saying that we were there and wanted to see the inside of the house.  So then we walked around the house and went up the steps to the front porch which was screened in and once we were inside of the porch, we realized that even the inside of the porch was just old and messed up.  I mean it was just bad.  So my husband said that he would give her another 20 minutes to call us back and right when were about to leave, she called me, and was like "well no one can show it to you today but what about tomorrow around 1:30?"  So my husband was upset and told me to tell her Monday because tomorrow we have to go to church and he has to finish his homework for the week.  So then she acted like she would have to check her contacts schedule to see when they would be available on Monday and that she would have to call us back.  So at this point my husband really didn't care because from what we saw, this landlord didn't care one bit about this property. 

So then we went to Chen's Garden in Greensboro and had some Chinese food and while my husband was in the bathroom the landlord called again and said that her dad could show us the house at 5:30.  So I agreed and told my husband.  So after we ate, we headed back over there because I figured that if all that was wrong with the property was the outside then we could work on that.  Boy was I wrong.  We get inside and the house smelled like fresh paint and I would say that it needed at least a few more months of work done on the inside before any human could live in there.  The house was advertised to have 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, a living room, kitchen, and an upstairs loft.  The house really had 3 bedrooms and an upstairs area that you could use as a bedroom or den.  But it wasn't as it was advertised.  So basically every room needed the carpet replaced,  There was paint splattered everywhere from old paint jobs, the upstairs "loft" had stained nasty carpet that needed to be replaced, there were construction materials everywhere.  I mean what is this woman thinking?  Why would she show a house in that condition?  She's never going to get it rented out in that condition.  If we even thought about moving there, I would have a lawyer draw up a document saying that if everything wasn't finished in the house, we would get our deposit back and not be legally bound to live there.  Oh and by the way, the house had OIL heat which only came out of one vent in the whole house and when we asked her father if it had central air, he said "No you have fans".  FANS!!!  So not even a window unit!  And get this, the house is renting for the same amount that we're paying here and this house is larger and is not under construction.  The house was just a HOT MESS!  So after we left there, I was back into the mode of trying to get my husband to put an application in for the home we saw the other day in the country.  But then once I got home I realized that I'm going about this all wrong.

You see, the house in the country is nice but it has no fence for the dogs and we were willing to put a fence up but a light bulb went off in my head and I realized that craigslist is not the only place that I can look for a house for rent.  So first I went to the News and Record and found a few homes, then I just googled houses for rent in Greensboro and I found a great site that has 6 houses that are in our price range, have fences, and have everything we need.  So first thing Monday morning I'm calling them.  Those houses may not have horses across the street but we aren't going to have to pay someone to install a fence either.

Also when I got home I looked at the rental contract for the house in the country and something caught my eye.  It had a list of things that the tenant who was leaving the property, meaning deciding to move out of the property had to do.  Now at first it was simple things like wash the windows and clean the floor, no biggy.  But then the list went on to say that before we could get our security deposit back we would have to replace the eye on the stove and inside the oven, hire a professional carpet cleaner to clean all the carpet in the house, if we have pets, hire a pest control man to spray for fleas, mow the lawn, keep the electricity on until the end of our lease, etc..  I mean this list was out of this world.  Now I'm no expert but isn't that the landlord's responsibility?  I understand making sure the house doesn't look like a dump but when did it become the tenant's responsibility to handle what the landlord is supposed to do.  At the end of the list, it said "The house needs to be in move in ready condition in order to get your deposit back".  Again isn't that the landlord's duty and not the tenant.  As long as we repair any damages done to the property then we should get our deposit back.  Something is just a little fishy about this company.  So that kinda turned me away from that house as well.

So then my husband and I watched the NBA All Star shooting games, (the 3 point competition, dunk contest, etc..) and my boys in green Paul Pierce and Ray Allen represented for the Celtics in the 3 point competition.  They didn't win but were in the finals.  Then in the dunk contest, there were a lot of great dunks.  There was one with 2 balls then 3 balls dunked.  Then Blake Griffin dunked over a car and had a gospel choir singing behind him.  That was ridiculous.  Then I watched some Oprah and that's pretty much my day.  Thanks for listening and God Bless.