Just when things seemed to be calming down....

What is wrong with people?

Has greed over-ran everyone's sense of decency, and humanity?

We have lived in this place we called home for 5 years now, and have been asked to move out by the landlord, officially.

His reason, his sons can't afford where they have been living, and he hasn't been able to properly fund his retirement account with this property, and do the repairs that are needed, so he's going to have them move in.

Now, the house market in Colorado, rental or purchase is just ridiculous. Rents are $1900 average, just a few years ago, $1200 - $1300 was considered high.

Now, to put this in perspective, I'm on disability, and have been for a while.. My spouse works, has had the same job for 10+ years.. Tho our income is high enough, we can't get assistance, but we don't make the "3x the cost of rent" rule all these property management companies are insisting on. (We're short of that rule by $300 - $500 for the cheaper rents we can find).

Then there is the whole "no pet" rules.. apparently pets are a bad thing, and no one should have them.

And then there are the scams and the cons.. OMG are they thick out there.. over 1/2 the listings I've looked at end up resulting in a e-mail reply of going to a credit monitoring subscription service or it's some # in Africa, saying I need to western-union him money, and he'll send me keys.

I know I don't post often, and I'm not well known... But I sure would appreciate some positive thoughts, prayers, or what ever it is you do. The anxiety, and the uncertainty of how to make this all work is eating away at me like nothing else has.

Also, if anyone from Colorado on ATS has a property they're renting out, send me a private, please.

Thanks for listening to my rant, even if it doesn't make much sense.

-Cyg

a reply to: Cygnis

I don't understand how someone desperate to fund his retirement is being greedy? Buying a home is about half the monthly payment of renting...why not buy something?

a reply to: Cygnis

Sorry to hear, Cygnis. Sending good stuff your way, things tend to work themselves out. Six months ago I went through the horrid process of finding an apartment in California( im from TN). We wouldn't have even been able to get a place, but luckily a couple is sharing one of the rooms. We barely even made the you gotta make 3 times more than rent rule. I could go on about how #ty it was but I don't think it would help. Just know that your situation does suck, massive balls. At the same time, Life(or god) throws situations our way because we are strong enough to handle them. I believe in you, Cygnis!!

a reply to: Cygnis

Being disabled, you should be able to afford a place for disabled people. They go by your income and sometimes utilities are included and it will be cheaper. Some places allow pets. You just have to look around. I'll pray for you and I wish you well.

originally posted by: Metallicus
a reply to: Cygnis

I don't understand how someone desperate to fund his retirement is being greedy? Buying a home is about half the monthly payment of renting...why not buy something?

I wasn't calling the landlord greedy, he never mentioned needing to raise the cost of rent. (Tho, I wouldn't of been against paying more to live here, if that is all it was.)

And as far as buying, the wife and I have fair credit, but all the rent-to-own programs I've looked into require a minimum gross income of $50,000, and we're shy of that a little. The average cost of homes around here tho, that would keep the wife from having to spend over an hour commuting to and from work each way (she works 12s), are above what a lender is comfortable giving us, because of our income.

Even still, people are offering more money then what sellers are asking because the demand is so high, so prices are going up. We have a lot of influx to the state, and it's pricing out a lot of people.

The wife's job is what keeps me and my daughter alive, with her insurance. As well as what covers the extra bills. So her picking up and finding a new job elsewhere, is a dangerous gamble.

originally posted by: Night Star
a reply to: Cygnis

Being disabled, you should be able to afford a place for disabled people. They go by your income and sometimes utilities are included and it will be cheaper. Some places allow pets. You just have to look around. I'll pray for you and I wish you well.

Wish that was true, and if I was single, it would be.. But since I am married, and her income brings the family's gross income up from being under the bottom 80% of the poorest, we don't qualify for housing assistance, or food assistance.. We are in that awful spot where we're too rich for help, but too poor to actually afford things normally.

Thanks for the prayers, Night Star, and the well wishes, I do appreciate them, deeply.

originally posted by: Sourcery
a reply to: Cygnis

Sorry to hear, Cygnis. Sending good stuff your way, things tend to work themselves out. Six months ago I went through the horrid process of finding an apartment in California( im from TN). We wouldn't have even been able to get a place, but luckily a couple is sharing one of the rooms. We barely even made the you gotta make 3 times more than rent rule. I could go on about how #ty it was but I don't think it would help. Just know that your situation does suck, massive balls. At the same time, Life(or god) throws situations our way because we are strong enough to handle them. I believe in you, Cygnis!!

Thanks for that, I have hope.. I trust your situation has worked out for the better?

I wouldn't wish such a situation on my worst enemies..

Not having a place to call "home", is not a fun experience.

a reply to: Cygnis

I feel for you mate, this world is definitely not as it should be. People are hurting all over the world and The Powers That Should Not Be stuff money into their pockets as fast as they possibly can.

Sadly I fear it going to get worse for millions more people, including myself and my wife and so on.

In recent years we have had a little girl 3 years old come into our live. This little girl has been sexually abused
and even her mother was grooming her to do what she herself does as out and out drug takers do.

Contact some realtors in person and explain your situation. Many manage houses for rent and have more flexibility with their requirements. It worked for us. They even lowered the rent to help out!

We're all sending positive thoughts your way.

a reply to: Cygnis

We are in that awful spot where we're too rich for help, but too poor to actually afford things normally.

Oh man do I know how that goes. We're in the same boat along with a ton of others.

Keep your chin up things will eventually get better, but make sure you search out a new place to live ASAP as it will help maintain some amount of normalcy to your lives. Moving sucks, but it could turn out for the better than where you were living. I know it's easier said than done, but don't freak out and don't give up. Try and channel your efforts into finding an affordable housing solution. Maybe look into how you can get some type of rental assistance because of your disability?

I have been in a similar circumstance on the other side being a landlord, basically when you rent you are at the whim of the owner. The owner pays/paid money for the property and actually legally owns it and may do what ever he deems fit. I made the mistake of being to generous with some tenants and got royally screwed over by them in the end and they took advantage of my kind nature...never again.

Not to sound too harsh but what he is doing for his sons your parents or relatives should be doing for you as he has no moral obligation nor financial obligation to stump up your lifestyle.

a reply to: Metallicus

I don't understand how someone desperate to fund his retirement is being greedy?

Totally agree.

Buying a home is about half the monthly payment of renting...why not buy something?

Absolutely not true (at least in my neck of the woods). Although, I suppose if one has enough for a GIANT down-payment that COULD be the case. Typically (again, where I am) a person rents a property for enough to pay the mortgage/taxes/insurance on said property so while they may not make an immediate profit, they are still building equity.

Denver area? You are right, the housing market is nuts. We've made good equity but we wouldn't be able to afford selling our house and moving into another house because the prices are crazy. Current rental prices on a one bedroom are higher than our mortage on the small house we bought just a few years ago. There is a big shortage of affordable housing here.

a reply to: Cygnis

Although neither my wife nor myself have any disability, I absolutely feel for you because in many ways I've been where you are.

At a point we had been in an apartment (part of a two family house with the landlord living on premises) and I only found out that the house was being sold (to people that would be converting the property into a larger single family dwelling) when I happened to come home early from work one day and bumped into the real estate agent. I was mortified but I also understood that it was the owner's property and if the roles were reversed.....

I also feel for you about the "no pets" thing but this is one of those situations where the bad apples ruin it for the bunch. The property owners' pay for bad pet owners behavior in the end (whether it be cat's spraying or dogs chewing up walls and the whole nine yards). To be candid, the only reason we are in the crappy apartment we are living in now is because I made a deal with the landlord in which we could have our pets (at the time dogs and cats but due to old age, now just cats) and I would maintain the yard.

For several reasons we started saving to purchase our own home years ago and as it happens, we are now pre-approved for a mortgage and are house-hunting (which is something that a poor kid like me never even dreamed of doing). The main reason, the umbrella cover-all reason is that we realized that unless you OWN your home, your fate is always tied to the decisions that are made by others and I hate that (as you do at the moment).

I know it sucks to be a tenant when a landlord causes chaos in your life, but to be fair you have to look at it from their perspective. Them taking care of their kids or taking care of themselves is something that any one of us (including you) would do. They purchased/rented out that property not to subsidize the lives of strangers, but as an investment.

Regarding the scams.... I HATE THOSE B_STARDS! Many, MANY years ago we were entirely broke and entirely desperate and (apparently) entirely naive so we responded to one of those ads in the local paper about "We guarantee to find you an apartment" only to pay them $150 (a TON of money for us back then) only to find out that they just printed out a list for us that was basically taken from other newspapers' real estate rental sections (and most of those were outdated and no longer available).

Best wishes to you and I sincerely hope everything works out well and does so in a not-too stressful way.

a reply to: Cygnis

I wasn't calling the landlord greedy, he never mentioned needing to raise the cost of rent. (Tho, I wouldn't of been against paying more to live here, if that is all it was.)

Okay, I am lost. Who is being greedy in your OP?

It sounds like the landlord was helping out family and trying to fund his retirement so not them then who? If you are concerned that the prices to rent are high because of resource scarcity that still isn't greed. If I understand what is happening there are many Californians fleeing their failed state for Colorado and the prices are naturally increasing for a limited resource.

I would agree that people fleeing California should have to fix their own state before destroying yours. Still, it isn't greed I see, but desperation.

I still think if you really work at it you could find a small place to buy and save a ton of money. This may be a blessing in disguise. You only need to find one place.

Good luck with everything.

a reply to: Cygnis

I'll gladly keep you and your family in our prayers.

That said, I'm probably too late to this thread to be of any help, and I don't know your age, but.................if I were in your situation and there was any possible way to figure it out, I'd get the heck out of Denver. Truth be told the whole "long commute" for too little money problem is killing what's left of the US middle class and there's really no reason to hang in with it because its just a vicious cycle, "have to have the job to pay for the car, have to have the car to get to the job". My experience is that you'll be far happier on half that income in a rural town or village settting; the Urban experience really is just for the wealthy anymore and none of the politicians are ever going to care about affordable housing. And in case you hadn't noticed, there's no recovery in housing for a variety of reasons.

I've long been the student of macro economic trends and finance in general, and there's probably never going to be a significant rebound in housing; the Developers won't be going back to tract house building and the politicians and the elites want to cram people into death trap high occupancy high rise apartment buildings along congested corridors of rail and bus, but the problem is the real estate along those corridors is so expensive the projects rarely get built or are tens of years out from construction phase.

Just my 2 cents. Good luck.