Applying for home rental post-discharge

[sophieanne]

Zombie13 - Sorry you had to have drama till the very end..but it’s done. Congratulations on starting your new job and on your new place to live!!! So…Puyallup or Renton???

[Zombie13]

sophieanne - thanks! We still need to do the pack/load of household goods, and car transport, and home sale, but yes, near the finish line!
For now, Puyallup. The Renton house was rented to someone else. The Puyallup home is nice, and it's a rambler so no stairs. We plan to live there 1-2 years, then move closer to the job location. Due to the bk and our credit score being in the 'Fair' range, we reasoned it's best to take the rambler since it was offered, get up there and get situated, then work on credit score improvement, etc. The commute isn't too bad it seems: 45 minutes or less. But we will confirm through experience.

[sophieanne]

That is a great strategy!! Puyallup is a good area and close to lots of great places. Good luck with all the final details and to starting your new job 😊

[Barbisi]

Hello all!
Yes, the rambler (ranch) will be a wonderful start over for me with all these ankle/ hip issues from navigating these stairs for over five and a half years.
And the ironic thing is, this 2000sf single level 2001 rental house is a far more modern living situation with all-SS appliances and an island in the kitchen and a five piece MB with double sinks and a separate tub and shower in the bathroom along with large walk in closets in the bedrooms.
Compare that to the 1975 2650sf two story with a basement house (approx., with two sets of stairs included in the footage), very small outdated bathrooms , tiny closets and a once very nice kitchen with a still attractive blue Corian countertop marred by a scratched up old sink with a partially working faucet, and now grimy , faded wood cabinets, not helped by cheap Amana white appliances, and you can readily understand why this move is a step up for us and bodes well for a brighter future.
My husband is getting a big raise to offset the higher COL, I will get a much needed break from stairs and will have less body pain to cope with at a lower altitude with more humidity and less sun, and there will be new and fresh things and exciting places to explore. And there are probable opportunities in my career interest (performing arts) and language skills set.
I didn't mind the frequent little rains and the slightly chilly temps. (I found rain jackets were sufficient along with transitional ( spring/fall) clothing and the winds were easy and mild .The temperatures varied between 35 (at night) - upper 50s (daytime highs) with mostly partly cloudy conditions (perfect!) The grass and trees were lush and vivid green and the air was crisp and clean and the sun was present but not too strong.
No brutal 50 degree daily changes (from 20s to 70s), no bone chilling winds blowing, no baking, blinding sun and no wild fire angst. (While we were gone a Colorado wild fire broke out and there are always advisories when the temps are above 70 (as they are now with little humidity and high gusting winds.)
Honestly, the only reason I was even willing to return to Colorado at all, was my three fur babies were waiting for us.
sophieanne , You do seem to be right - everything is working out as it was meant to be!
Thank you for your cheerful and positive comments!

[Carmella]

Whew! That's good Zombie13 you need some time to breathe!

[Zombie13]

Yes indeed Carmella !

[justbroke]

That does sound like the ideal place to unwind after a Chapter 13! I moved from my home 4 months before my Chapter 13 ended, lived in a "luxury" apartment complex for a year, and bought the house that I'm in now. While I loved my Chapter 13 investment home -- which is partly why I ended up in a Chapter 13 -- too many memories. Silly me though, that house is now at $1.1M, and I paid just over $500K for it just 14 years earlier. The housing market is bananas as I wouldn't pay $1M for that house today.

I wanted to mention what "luxury apartment" seems to mean. It means they have one or more resort-style pools, picnic tables, free built-in gas grills, a clubhouse with a complete bar (and maybe billiards table too) that you can use on a first come basis, gym, dog park, etc. I didn't need any of those amenities, but I paid the premium to live there. I wish could find a new place like that, but without all those useless -- to me -- amenities. Long gone are the days of $1,000/month 3Bed apartments in the major Florida metro areas.

[Carmella]

justbroke I would be so tempted to move to a "luxury" or at least a "semi-luxury" apartment. The one my daughter lives in is what I would call "semi-luxury" because it has amenities, but not over the top like some that I have seen online. Part of me would love having a decent amount of space. My daughter moved to a two bedroom that is very close to square footage in my current home, which is a smaller home. It's very tempting to think I wouldn't have to worry about a house or any of the responsibilities.

But then there's something nice to think my house will be totally paid paid off soon and we will need to sink some money into it for needed repairs/upgrades and probably not sell/move.

And house prices are just insane. there are some not far from me selling for half a million which is totally nuts. And I saw some new homes not too far away going for almost 2 million. Granted they are very huge houses, but the area all I could think if I had 2 million to spend it would NOT be there! I imagine the prices will drop and then people are going to owe more than the house is worth or maybe break even if they were to sell. These inflated prices can't last forever.

Zombie13 I am glad you are getting out and moving on. The inflated prices well yeah who doesn't want more $$/profit, but if I had to choose getting out and getting on with life is MORE valuable than several grand!

Barbisi the rental sounds lovely and will be a Godsend for you to kick back and relax and the culture in the area sounds grand! You can take your time and when you house hunt you can find what you want at a price that is good for you to live with. When the prices start falling you can end up getting more house for your $$

It is so exciting. I think we will stay in our house or if the future holds a lateral move that might work, but the immediate plan is do some repairs/upgrades that we would like if we stay and will help for resale (but not over the top upgrades). We could age in this house with some minor adaptations.

That being said my daughter has talked about moving out of state and if she does and settles in another state we will probably follow once we are retired which is a good 10 yrs for me. We would follow since we have nothing holding us to this area as far as family goes and want to be near our daughter once she has kids. Though I would miss a lot of the culture we have. Don't worry Barbisi I do not think Colorado is a place she would end up!

[justbroke]

justbroke I would be so tempted to move to a "luxury" or at least a "semi-luxury" apartment... but not over the top like some that I have seen online.

I think the place that I was in was definitely over-the-top.

It had a mandatory "valet trash" service. You put your trash out nightly by 5PM and they emptied your -- complex supplied -- kitchen trash receptacle. They charged $35/month for this service. The dumpster was 1/2 mile from my building.. could have done it myself.

The valet company also had other a la carte services including housecleaning and even pet walking. The complex was expansive and resort style (whatever that means). It had a car washing area (2 cars at a time), a pet washing station, garages (some attached), fire pits, yoga room/classes, washer and dryers in each unit, granite counters, luxury vinyl plank in common and wet areas, etc. It looked nice.

The majority of the services I didn't need or use. Wish I could have received a discount!

[Zombie13]

Carmella - We are most definitely not apartment people. See, we would be evicted so fast because, as you can see on these forums, we are pretty ... passionate about our opinions (translation: LOUD) LOL! So yeah, no apartment life for us.
Sounds like you are on the right track: if it's broke, fix it. If your plan is to follow your daughter, when you do, you may get a good price for your home. Consider talking to a trusted realtor about selling to an investor as well, who can offer you a fair price. We did not consider that until recently, and it worked out better than expected.
justbroke - Fancy! yoga room and classes sounds really awesome, along with w/d in each unit. I don't wanna get "coodies" from the public ones... I guess I have gotten a little paranoid due to the last few years I guess. We lived in a complex where you put money on a card for the machines. But at least twice, mine got bent/stepped on <ok, I stepped on it when it was stuck in my shorts - I forgot it was there>, and was suddenly worthless argh! No refunds, sorry.

Yes, home prices are nuts, so are rentals. But, with rising interest rates, people returning to work, and hopefully supply chain issues resolved, <and in general, processes returning to "normal"> over time, prices will gradually, naturally fall and stabilize vs. a bubble Boom/pop/burst/gigantic windshield bug splat.
Speaking of supply chain issues - I experienced it firsthand at the job. I needed to order items to build up electronic load boxes: nuts, bolts, screws, washers, wiring, discrete components, all of specific part number before end of 2021, and many were on back order for 3-6 months, from Mouser, DigiKey, etc. Stressful! What would normally be a simple wiz-bang-done job, took 6 weeks. Wow.

[Carmella]

What I am thinking of is definitely NOT what justbroke described. I wouldn't be much of an apartment person in the sense of a highrise building. My daughter's apartments are set up like condos so there's a bit more privacy and there's a lot of green space. They may have been luxury back 20 yrs ago when they were originally built!

[justbroke]

What I am thinking of is definitely NOT what justbroke described. I wouldn't be much of an apartment person in the sense of a highrise building. My daughter's apartments are set up like condos so there's a bit more privacy and there's a lot of green space. They may have been luxury back 20 yrs ago when they were originally built!

I lived in one like this that was built over 2013-2015. My apartment complex had townhouses and two story buildings. It sat on over 60-acres with 26 or more acres of preserve (nature, animals, ponds, ponds, river, and two bridges). There were just about 400 units in that complex. It was well done and didn't feel like I was at a mall with large buildings surrounded by a massive parking lot.

I abhor hi-rise apartment buildings. I do not like high-density anything. Especially 3-story walk-up apartment buildings that have 24-64 units in each megabuilding.

[Zombie13]

We are definitely not high rise folk, nor in-town city types either.

Sounds nice justbroke! Except 3 story walk ups... yeah, we did that once. It was awful luggin those boxes and furniture!

I reason, getting out of CO is the hard part; getting to WA will be easy, once we get to that point.

First virtual day on the job went ok; had a few hurdles to overcome with login and special 'qr code' access stuff that was not well defined. But it's done now.

[Barbisi]

When we lived in NH, one of the two rental apartments we lived in and actually loved for the most part, was a large three-story former condo building with an elevator and nice sized open concept units. It overlooked a park with a running track and the rent included a nice gym membership. When we moved in, we had four cats, but lost one to cancer during the first few months of our two+ year tenure there. (The other three died in Colorado between 2015- 2021.)
For us, an indoor yoga studio or on site fully equipped gym would be a most welcome amenity, but not a useless clubhouse for social gatherings, valet parking, pools, garbage pickup, or dog parks (my felines do not like canines, haha!)
I made a mistake: the rambler was built in 2003 not 2001 and according to the listing was recently updated (so the SS appliances and bathroom fixtures are not 19 years old, and everything (save the 2016 SS fridge we put in) is a lot newer than our current residence.)
Carmella, you crack me up - I certainly hope your daughter doesn't plan to move to crappy Colorado after all the posts I've written about the many unpleasantries that openly exist here, LOL!
This state is certainly not for everyone, as I sadly found out.
To each their own as the expression goes.

[Carmella]

Barbisi she's applied for a remote job and the main office is in Missouri. I wouldn't mind visiting Colorado and maybe see the Figure Skating Hall of Fame or stop at the Olympic training center for a tour...but that's about it