On the home front…

Daddy has looked at about a dozen home rentals in Vegas this past week.   Our “plan” was to get a house in the school zone we wanted (the highest rated public school in Vegas) by paying what we are currently paying for our mortgage/property taxes.  We want to be in the Green Valley ranch area (Henderson).

However, plans never go as, well, planned when it comes to us.

First off, we have some requirements which limited our search:

• Need a rental that accepts pets (we have two dogs and one cat).
• Need a rental that has either all bedrooms on the same floor or has only one non-master bedroom on the bottom floor.
• Need a rental that has 4 bedrooms, 2 baths.
• Need a rental with tile in much of the downstairs because of the dogs and their starting-to-age bladders.
• Need a spacious doorstairs floorplan so that Hannah is able to use her walker and gait trainer.

There were only three houses that fit our criteria for rentals in the school we wanted.   We were dreaming I guess…  the first one was vandalized inside, the second one had a homeless person living in it, and the third one was in really bad condition.

Obviously, we had to downsize our ideal situation since the amount of money we could spend would not fit the homes we wanted.  So we went with “Plan B” – the second level of school ratings (2 schools).    Only a couple of home offerings in this one as well, but one backed up to a wash, and the other backyard backed up to an apartment complex parking lot (with only a 6-foot back fence).  These homes were “okay,” but I just did not feel comfortable having such easy backyard access to our house.  We even upped our rent allowance $200 a month to see if it would expand our options. There was actually only one home that was decent, but when we tried to figure out where to put everyone, it just was too small (about 900 sq smaller than our current house).  Again, money prohibited us from renting a home that would really fit our criteria.

“Plan C” – not as great school (average), but good neighborhoods.   In this area and the $200 monthly bump, we had about 5 homes to choose from that he liked (none with our pre-$200 bump).  The irony with this group is that they are around the same size as our house.    After talking about it last night (and about 50 pictures), we chose one of them.  It is at the end of a cul-de-sac (which I like), nice neighborhood, tile floors downstairs where the dogs would be, great condition, and because it is a corner unit, it has a nice-sized backyard.

I guess we were naive thinking that we would be able to get a decent rental for the amount we wanted to pay.  We figured so many homes were in foreclosure that people would be renting for dirt cheap.  But the reality is that with so many homes in foreclosure, there are very few people renting now.  And those that are renting are trying to recoop money to pay their mortgage.

Sadly, renting a home is going to cost us almost twice the amount of money each month than purchasing a new one!  But since Daddy still has no job right now, and my part-time job is only bringing in so much, there is just no way we could purchase a home right now.  So we figure we just make it through the 1-year lease, and then we can find a new home in the school zone that we want when we are ready to buy a home (if we still want to move them).

Daddy is putting in an application for our top choice of “Plan C” tomorrow.  Hopefully it will get accepted.  If not, we have chosen our second and third “Plan C” homes as well.