The Home Search – Stay True To Yourself!
A true story of a costly mistake we made while undergoing a home search for a rental and the lessons learned that by spending more time “in advance,” could have saved a year of anguish!
We moved out of our own single family home into another state and of course wanted/needed the extra space and privacy that you get with a home vs. apartment. We have children and are outdoorsy and very social people so this is where it gets really bizarre… Our home search took us down the wrong path and the area we decided to rent in is very competitive and we put in several offers and got caught up in some glorified home on a hill with a city view.
Yes, we rented the home at the top of a hill on a cliff, with zero yard space and zero neighbors. The home is really nice and all and our house guests are impressed, but the home was a complete mismatch of the lifestyle that we were accustomed to, and we totally forgot who we were.
We totally forgot who we were…
The street we now live off of is like a scenic byway and there’s tons of traffic traveling by daily. The kids have nowhere to play, we have no yard to BBQ and soak up the sun. Nowhere to spread out and we still have 7 more months left to go…
The conclusion; I think its OK to venture out a little, but we got way too far out of our comfort zone and a year lease is a long time to suffer because of our lack of good judgement, laziness, our identity crisis, and any combination thereof.
The lesson; Budget all the time you need and make a “punch list” of what you love/despise and stay TRUE to yourselves or you may fall into the trap that we did and deeply regret it. It seems simple but trust me, its easy to lose focus. Lesson learned!
Stay TRUE to yourself.
We are real people with real life situations. I won’t lecture about the importance of renters insurance, and we do not subscribe to any specific company. This is just another dose of reality that can sneak up on you.
A colleague of mine lost it all and then some because of an innocent mistake. “My dog knocked over my halogen floor lamp” and I not only lost my best friend, I lost my life savings and more.
Please visit for a dose of reality when bad things happen to good people.
