I originally wrote this on Monday, August 26^th. I’ll work on an update this weekend.

                On Saturday, I spent the morning looking at rental houses with my realtor. She’s very knowledgeable about the rental market, what to look for, and what you can ask the landlord. We even talked about negotiating rent. In case you don’t already know, I love negotiating! I even spent several years negotiating for a living.

                We looked at about half a dozen places. The last ones were condos about 10 minutes from my new school. Across the street from the condos are single level townhomes with attached 2 car garages. Probably built in the seventies, but they looked well taken care of. The realtor said, “It would be nice if one of those townhomes was for rent”.

                I agreed and asked what she thought the price would be. While she was mulling it over, I pulled up real estate on my phone and saw that my guess was right. Except there was one listed for nearly half the amount of the other townhomes in the community! I asked if we could look at this low priced townhome since we were right there. She was as interested as I, so she readily agreed, assuming she could get a hold of the listing agent.

                Ten minutes later, my realtor had the code and we were headed to the front door.  There’s a courtyard for each home. You have to open a gate to get to the front door and pass the small yard on your way in. The gate was rickety and the yard was seriously overgrown.

                The code worked and we were inside the townhome! The entry way has dark red tiles that were very trendy in the seventies (according to my mom) and a natural wood (oak?) wall. To the right is a good sized living room with skylights, a brick fireplace, and a closet. My first impression was the home needs to be painted and the carpets need to be cleaned. All easily taken care of, right? There is a backdoor in the living room. Outside the backdoor, you can see the community swimming pool. No one was enjoying the pool, but it sure looked inviting!

                Next, we moved into the large master bedroom, which also has skylights. There’s another small yard off the master bedroom. Of course, that yard is also overgrown and the fence has broken boards. There is a dressing area, complete with a not so lovely peach countertop. This leads to the full bathroom, which needs a good deep cleaning and wall paper removed. There is also a large walk-in closet off the dressing area.

                We continue through the home and find another living or dining area with a wet bar. Good thing the wet bar is hidden behind folding doors because the dark brown cabinets and golden yellow countertops are ugly! There’s another closet in this room. It is not very deep and all shelves. Perfect for organizing! And a sliding door connects to an atrium.

                The second bedroom also has a sliding glass door leading out to the atrium. One entire wall is a deep closet. I love closet space! There is a bathroom right next to the second bedroom. It was in good condition and even had a shower, making it perfect for a roommate. The shiny, metallic wallpaper really needs to be removed. I think I’d get a migraine if I spent too long in that room!

The kitchen also connects to the atrium, but just with a large window overlooking it in the breakfast nook area. Plenty of room for my kitchen table in there. The kitchen is connected to the second living/dining area – no need to actually go through the window to get to the kitchen! The stove and cook top appeared to be original; the rest of the appliances have probably been replaced in the last ten to fifteen years.  The linoleum in the kitchen is stained and torn. I do not think it would be possible to salvage that floor! The cabinets are not too bad and I could live with the countertop for a while, but the floor would have to be replaced.

                The kitchen pantry is roomy, but the wood shelves definitely need replaced. I think I could do that on my own. Also, there is a closet for the washer and dryer in the kitchen.

                We finally make it to the garage and the first thing I notice is two large storage closets, in addition to plenty of room to park two cars. Another selling point for a potential roommate!

                Now to convince my parents this would be a great investment for them. Or maybe I’ll finally win the lottery?*

* Note to self: buy lottery ticket.