All Things Profane and Sacred

So, I'm crazy. Bonkers. Barney. Balmy. And that's just the B words. I've been looking into rental houses down by Newport, and god how I hate hate hate trying to find a place to live. Partly it's the zoo that I'm hauling around, but mostly its the whole picking out a landlord and putting down a deposit that gets me blue.

About 1/2 to 2/3s of landlords suck, in a general fashion. They will try to steal your deposit (after charging waaaay to much-one place wanted rent+$200+$150 each for the animals=too fucking much to put down on a rental house), they won't fix things, they want to stick their big fucking nose into all of your business. Trying to separate the wheat from the chaff is hard when there isn't a whole lotta rental options (that aren't ritzy mansions on the beach).

So, crazy yes? In the head? Insane in the membrane as the kids would say, at least they would back when I was a kid, or I should further say, they would on tv when I was a kid, ok, alright, no one says that but me when I'm feeling manic and rumbly. ARRRG!

So, now, at this late date, we're again mulling over the purchase of a house. We think that it could be that when all's said and done, we'd end up shelling out less than we would for renting, and at least then we'd be investing a bit of money, rather than throwing down some slimeball landlord's toilet. [Note: I worked in property management for several years; I feel justified in my 1/2-2/3s estimate and mean no offense to the 1/2 to 1/3s of landlords who are awesome. I love you!]

After all, I figure you may as well get all the stressful life changing events behind you at the same time. It's like when I quit smoking (again-practice makes perfect) right before the bar exam. It worked perfectly-I was so stressed and sick over the exam, that I barely noticed that I had quit smoking.

The problems with that senario, though, are many. First, we have no fucking money. No savings. No credit, no nothing. Second, we trashed our credit getting though this year. I went into school with good credit. I finished with decent credit. One year later, I have trashed credit. Third, the manuvering seems like it would take a goodly long while. There are other problems, but they are too gloomy to contemplate. I suppose it never hurts to talk to a mortgage broker, and different people have told me how you don't need a lot of cash on hand or great credit or whatnot, but I find it hard to believe that any bank would look at my financial situation and say, oh, sure, here's another hundred grand-enjoy!

I'm going to go put my head in a bucket of water.