House Hunters: Dejected Frustration Edition

[kpzra]

Quoth Merriweather

We were never stationed anywhere that had less than a six month to a year waiting list to get into base housing, so you still had to fnd an apartment. Some places had waiting lists so long it was a gamble whether your name would come up before you transferred.

I lived in housing once, when daughter was small. We got in after six months, because we only qualified for the older, substandard housing (all two bedrooms). If you qualified for the newer housing (3 & 4 bedrooms) you had a 2 year wait.

But at that time, in the Navy, to qualify for a 3 bedroom over a 2 bedroom, you had to either have 3 children (and being pregnant with a third did not count, you couldn't even get on the list til after the baby was born), or if you had 2 children, you could get on the list for a 3 bedroom once one child was six (if they were different sexes) or once one child was 12 (if they were same sex).

The wait at Benning was ~ a year (and crappy housing) but Alaska has PCS season (starts in April ending in early October). Unless you are single and they are flying you up, you will NOT move in winter there. This makes it easy to tell when housing is opening up. Hubby was in a unit that was just standing up so they had a set amount of houses set aside, but we knew how unusual it was to have only a 3 day wait. There also was a lack of housing in Anchorage that post housing knew about as anything that lower enlisted could afford was black listed due to the area. There was a whole empty 8plex across from us that K9 MPs used to practice searching and clearing until it was needed. Alaska is a whole different world though.

We didn't have any kids at that point but we were pre approved for a 3 bedroom unit upon official conformation of pregnancy. Ft Richardson housing was nice though, in fact they were working on building new and tearing down all the old stuff from the '50's. Everyone was getting a garage.

[Antisocial_Worker]

Sorry I haven't been able to comment on these horror stories, but I've been working.

I do have news though. Wish us luck -- we found a very nice place for only $39 more than what our rent will rise to here where we're at. We've both looked at it, we both like it, and we're putting in an application tomorrow.

It has more space than we know what to do with, including 3 bedrooms, 2 and a half baths, a garage, a tiny front porch and a little back patio, room to plant a few things, a fireplace, plenty of storage space, and a much nicer kitchen than here.

Basically, the price is still high, but the price is justified at that place. Best of all, it's on a main road which will be quickly plowed in the winter should it snow. That's important for him because of his job at the hospital.

*crosses fingers*

[wolfie]

Quoth 24601

Our realtor SUCKED, didn't make any effort to help us, ignored our wants (not in Anchorage, yard for dog, 2 bedrooms). The one place she showed us as a Hobbit house, hubby (6'3") had to duck under the ceiling fans or be hit in the head, plus it was filthy. The next house had one small heater in the living room and that was it...in Alaska.

The house we ended up in was nice but had a weird living room (long and narrow) and oh yeah, turns out she's the agent selling it (found that out at the closing).

My guess as to the reason she ignored your wants? She wasn't the listing agent on any houses that met your wants, and (in order to get both sides of the commission) only showed you houses where she was the listing agent.

[kpzra]

No, she told us from the beginning that "I'll treat you like my kids". We were both working in Anchorage but didn't want to live there. SHE decided that we shouldn't/wouldn't want to do the drive (hour into town from Wasilla). I finally brew up on her when she said she was too tired to drive us to look at any places. The VA thing was just the final straw with her, and why she is/was black listed.

[Ellain]

Wow, my hubby and I have been really lucky. We found our first house fairly quickly, and while it was neither in a good neighborhood nor in great condition, it was affordable and only 2 blocks from where I worked at the time. We redid every floor in the place (Rainbow shag carpet?! Complete with oil stains from a motorcycle repair... Let's do wood laminate.), put up insulation and drywall, and gutted the kitchen (Orange countertops with scorch marks, oven that wouldn't close, cabinets without doors).

Our second (current) house we stumbled upon by accident. Our realtor took us out for the second batch of walk throughs, and after an unexciting line up, we spotted an open house. We had extra time, so figured what could it harm? We LOVED it. We call it a Mary Poppins house- practically perfect in every way.

Now we just have to find someone to take the old one off our hands. Any takers? I thought not.

[Antisocial_Worker]

Another update.

There is a problem, which I discovered today although honestly I should have seen it coming. Our new place is located smack next door to one of the two locations of the president's favorite barbecue restaurant. We were taking things over this morning and the smells wafting over from there were driving me insane. And I hate barbecue. I'm going to have to go over there and try them out and see if I still hate barbecue. Fortunately there is a well-worn path connecting my new place to the restaurant.

Also, it would appear that our predecessors at the new place were hippies. We checked the mailbox and got an armload of their mail -- for about five different people, and involving such concerns as the Maine Organic Gardeners and Farmers Association and a local animal rescue shelter. I also happened to meet a neighbor last night while taking things over, who welcomed me and noted that her little dog -- which was then peeing on our small scrap of front lawn -- had always hated the dogs that lived there with the people we were replacing. It is a well known fact here where I live (and we know our hippies here) that hippies are marked by a propensity for packing into rental housing -- sometimes dozens at a time -- and the presence of dogs. Therefore, I inspect the mail and remember the dogs and conclude: hippies.

[Andara Bledin]

While I don't dispute your conclusion, there are many reasons for mail to a lot of different names might hit one location.

I moved into my house last year, and the owner had the place for six, himself. He lied about living here and had his brother's family here, instead. I'm still getting mail for him, his brother, his brother's wife, and at least two other people who either never lived here or lived here most of a decade ago.

^-.-^

[telecom_goddess]

Quoth Merriweather

There was another place, an old house that had been made into 3 apartments (upstairs, downstairs & basement). It had been redone recently, and was gorgeous, one of the nicest places I've ever been into, from luxury kitchen to repro period light fixtures. Unfortunately, the square footage that the owner had sworn was for the one apartment had to be for at least two of them combined, if not all. It was just too small for us. I'd like to think I wouldn't have let the other thing keep me from renting it - that the house used to be a funeral parlor. At least the apartment we were interested in wasn't the basement apartment - that used to be the morgue

Wow....I'm not sure I'd be horrified or fascinated at the reno that would be involved for something like that. One would think THAT place would be haunted

[BlaqueKatt]

Quoth telecom_goddess

One would think THAT place would be haunted

Um, from what I know of the people that believe in ghosts, one universal truth is they haunt where they lived and/or died,where the soul/spirit left the body, not where they were prepped for burial 3-4 days after death....

[telecom_goddess]

Quoth BlaqueKatt

Um, from what I know of the people that believe in ghosts, one universal truth is they haunt where they lived and/or died,where the soul/spirit left the body, not where they were prepped for burial 3-4 days after death....

yeah but back in the day some people were buried when they weren't dead yet