I was ecstatic when I finally found a rental that I could afford after weeks of scouring the market with no luck.
It’s terrible when your budget is within that range where most of the examples you find are poorly maintained or downright hovels.
I don’t ever want to feel like I’m putting down another person’s home or lifestyle choices, but I wanted to live somewhere at least halfway clean. With my limited budget for rent, this proved to be a much harder task than I ever thought possible. Even when I found something promising, it was usually within minutes of walking in for a tour when I would realize the place too much like mold or a musty basement. So many of the properties in my budget were either poorly maintained or rampant with water damage from leaking sinks or ceilings. It took twice as long as I expected, but I finally found a rental property that I could afford and in which I felt somewhat comfortable and safe. It’s a duplex where the car port is shared, but the two units have their own four walls. As great as this is for privacy and noise, it’s not as great for heating and cooling performance as I would have expected. The walls are poorly insulated and the cool conditioned air leaks out during the hot summer weather with total ease. Although I was happy to not hear my neighbor’s through my bedroom wall, I wasn’t happy with my barely affordable electricity bill each month. Until I get a better job and my budget for rent increases, I will have to make do with properties like the one I’m renting now.