I had decided many moons ago that in order to survive the end of my marriage I would need to have a roommate or two. They would help me pay for the bills so that I can stay afloat. The thought after me leaving Syracuse was to rent out my room and thus I would have 3 tenants and keep the property a little longer until I can fully assess what I want to do with it.
So, I figure that I would just put up an ad on Craigslist and then another on Orangehousing. I figured that there is always someone who is always looking to move and I am not a bad roommate at all. I have a 4 bedroom house with everything you need. I just debated the asking price. I personally didn't think that asking for $600 per month with everything included was going to be a big deal. But, I found out quickly that in Syracuse...that is too expensive.
Fine. I start lowering the asking price. It started with this one chick (white girl 1 or WG1 for short) who said she needed a place to stay. I knew her from another person and I figured she would be good. We had this discussion in February and I thought we were all set. To be honest, I made certain concessions in order to allow her to stay. I gave WG1 the lease for her to look over before she signed it and we agreed upon a date for her move. WG1 never moved in. It was like she fell of the face of the planet! I left a few messages. I even reamed her out on the last one. But hey...she is young and dumb so it is what it is. (Trust me I was tight)
It was time to go back to the drawing board. I needed to clean up a little and rework my ad.
April comes around and I am really feeling the pinch of my bills and I finally get the damn ad out. I start getting massive amount of hits and emails. At the same time, a buddy of mine starts having issues at home and needs a place to stay. I only have two rooms available so I figured I am good. I hold off on my replies to people because I am waiting for my friend to move in. I am a good guy. I try to help people in need, but then he tells me that he is not sure he will be able to move in. Still feeling confident I start my replies to these people.
Amazingly I got replies from people who had cats. I have nothing against them, but Rocky might. Then there were a few people who wanted me to hold the room until August. That was a definitive no. So, in weeding out responses, I was able to select my top 2 prospects. A guy (the Italian) that is about my age, maybe a little older and a young woman (WG2) who just got out of college. I invited them over to view the rooms. Things seem pretty cool. They met each other and we all talked about expectations. WG2 was to be the first to move in that very weekend. The Italian wanted to wait until he got paid.
The weekend comes...nothing. No moving in. No e-mail. No text. No phone call. Somehow I am not surprised. This would be woman number 2 that flaked on me. I am starting to think it is me. Maybe I am too brown. Maybe I have pervert written on my head somewhere. So I am thinking...ok, at least I have one roommate that might be moving in. The next day, my friend tells me that everything changed and if I still had a room he could use it. FINALLY! I am getting paid! So he moves in and all I need for the Italian to move in.
This is where people made fun of me because it would be a bachelor pad. 3 grown men living together? Sounds plausible, but I am not trying to mess up this house further. So we are getting closer to the end of April and the Italian comes to me and says he is thinking about moving somewhere else (mind you...he has already paid his security deposit). The issue is that I have no furniture for him and this other place comes with furniture. So he will NOT be moving in. I just throw my hand up. I mean is it really that hard to find a roommate? I am not asking for all that much!
A friend of mine suggested that I re-do the ad to make it sounds personable. So I did that. To this day I still have nothing. I will have to re-double my efforts when I return from Santo Domingo.
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