REAL Estate

The other day in the middle of all that is going on Sunday rolled around and an open house for an apartment rolled around. To take a break and also to try to find another place which I have been trying to find for several years with no luck I decided to check out the place. The owner said it was a tri-plex and located in the back of the building on the second floor. I am not crazy about second floor anything especially apartments. All the apartments that we lived in except one was on the second floor. So, even though I was thinking I am not crazy about going up and down a million stairs I said to myself that it doesn't hurt to look and plus it will give me a chance to just get out of the house for more then ten seconds to get some much needed fresh air.

The drive over took about ten minutes give or take a few minutes. We, my nephew and I got there and found the place. The owner was right it was all the way in the back and you had to go through a gate and a long driveway to find it. A house was in the front and next to that house in the front were the mailboxes that said "A, B, C" on them. Further back was the place that was vacant and on one side on the bottom was another apartment and on the other side was another apartment. (downstairs) So, we were standing there looking up at all the steps it took to get to the apartment that was for rent. It had two flights and in between the two flights was a small landing. I guess you could rest there if you got tired. The stairs were small and covered with some non slip stuff and they were enforced with some brackets underneath.  I decided to take the trip up the steps to look inside through the windows to get an idea of how big it might be in the inside. The front window had blinds so you couldn't see too much only a partial view of the living room.

The owner was running late and said he would be there in a few minutes. Meanwhile another woman showed up and she stayed down stairs and looked up and saw us. She said hello and asked if we were there to see the apartment too. I told her we were. She asked did we live in this city also and I said we did. She lived in another city. She was maybe in her mid 30's or so and asked me if I knew how people chose people for renters now days. I told her I didn't really know but my guess would be that they chose you if they liked you and if they thought that you would be a good fit for the building or place they were renting. That was all I could think of and she agreed and said that a part of it is too who you know. I told her that is true too and I know nobody. She laughed and then an older lady showed up with her two sons.  One of the sons spoke to everyone and his mom just nodded and smiled. We told the them the landlord was running late. A few minutes later a car pulled in the driveway with a woman and a little girl who was about 8 or 9 years old. The second they pulled into the driveway this older woman came running out of her house with salt and pepper hair and told the woman that she couldn't park there it was someone else's space. She was not friendly at all and the look on her face when she said it reminded me of face you make when you eat a sour lemon.

So, the woman backed out and parked on the street and the older woman returned to her house after she looked over the rest of the people standing outside waiting. She gave everyone the "once over" and went back into her place. Shortly after that a blue car pulled up and it was the landlord. He was a short man wearing black slacks and a blue dress shirt with no tie. He got of the car with a bunch of papers in his hand and clipboard. He spoke to everyone and ask everyone if they were here to see the apartment. Up the stairs everyone went except me because I was already up there. Single file they followed him up and he opened the door. The place was not as big as it might have looked from the view of the window. The carpet was exactly the same as the carpet they put in here and the living room was about the same size as the one here give or take a couple of inches. The kitchen counters were darker then the ones here and on the top of the counters were various kinds of alcohol bottles from the previous renters, who apparently were still moving out according to the landlord. The other counter had a box of cereal sitting in the corner and a couple of bananas next to it. The kitchen was longer then mine and in the back of the kitchen was a older model washer and dryer.

The bedrooms were super small and even the little girl who was there with her mom said that her room now was twice the size. I wanted to laugh because my room now is twice the size too and it is not big. So, the tiny boxes that were passing as bedrooms had nothing on the small bathroom next door to one of the rooms. The hallway was small and jam packed with two small rooms next to each other like two steps from each other and the bathroom was right next to one of the rooms so actually there was not much of a hallway or not much room between the bathrooms and the bedrooms. I am sure that you would be able to hear everything that went on in all the rooms including the bathroom they were that close to one another.

So, after our short tour of the place I filled out an application on the kitchen counter. Not really too crazy about the place but knowing that I need to try too. I noticed that there were no kids playing anywhere in the neighborhood which made me wonder if there were any. If it was a neighborhood filled with older people like the woman down stairs with the sour puss face. I got the impression that she didn't like kids or noise. It was too quiet in that neighborhood. I didn't see a single person outside doing anything. The parking was tight so I know they all had to be home so even though I filled out the application I was not crazy about anything. I was imaging my son outside skateboarding in the driveway and the neighbor from below rushing out saying she couldn't take the noise and making a sour puss face again and making a scene. Nope that would not due at all. I could sense she might be trouble with it came to being neighborly. Then I was thinking about any kind of play dates that my son would beg to have and the same sour puss woman complaining about noise. I was down to the last line of this front and back application and then tore it up. I could not see myself living there for more then a few reasons. Then what really made my decision easier was when the landlord told the woman we were talking to about how he is looking for someone quiet and it is an older building and the woman downstairs like quiet, old sour puss and since part of the place was over here she could hear everything. That cinched it for me. I told him thanks but no thanks. We are not that quiet. (LOL) We talk, laugh, play, walk around, and do loud sometimes when we are watching a good movie or a good game on TV. So, church mouse quiet is something that we aren't and wouldn't work for us.

Moving on to the next one when I see it.  On a side note this real estate man sends me listings somehow I went to his site a few months ago to see this house that I knew in my wildest dreams I could not afford unless I won the lottery and not a small lottery either. But, hey, I can look and dream so he sent me a listing for a house right across the street from my grandmother's old house where we used to live and it was the same number of bedrooms and baths that my grandmother had and the price indicated that when it said 989k. Well, We didn't even get that much for my grandmothers house a lot less back then and I scrolled through the pictures of the house and that was basically all I could do was look. So, the next day I get an email asking if I would like to go to the open house and make an offer. Well, I didn't torture myself going to an open to see a house that was way, way, way  out of the realm of possibility for me so I told him thank you but that was not the right house for me at this time which of course prompted him to ask what kind of house I was looking for so he could send me listings.  He's sweet thinking I am rich. LOL And to buy a house in the bay area you have to be almost a millionaire now days or pretty darn close to one.