We Signed A #&@$% Lease

We three had been looking forward to a relaxing summer, which was to have included a month in Canada. Following the initial couple of months of infant-imposed torture, we had just begun to see the glimmer of normalcy returning to our lives. Then, out of the blue, we received notice that our landlord was moving back to San Diego from Japan - and they wanted their home back.

This was awful news. We had already moved twice in 2 years. And we had been told by the owner of this house that we would be able to renew the lease if we so chose. Had he told us at the outset that he would be returning we would not have considered this property. In fact, about 6 months ago I had emailed the manager and let him know that we intended to renew. They never responded to that email.

Our first inclination was to try to buy a house. Prices are down significantly in SoCal and it is a buyer's market. But the timing was tight and, though we did look at some prospects, we decided we did not have the time to go through the whole buying process... and we did not want to be pressured into buying something in a hurry due our landlord's sudden change of heart.

Thus began our search for a rental. Looking at houses with a baby is quite a bit more difficult than without. First off, we had to travel with a lot of gear. Secondly, the baby cried a lot. Thirdly, intermittent feedings and changes were necessary. Ultimately, two or three house visits would take multiple hours and would be exhausting.

Another problem that we encountered was a tight rental market. A year earlier, when we were looking for essentially the same kind of property, we had our pick of great properties. For $2400 one could get a big, modern house (equivalents were selling in the $800,000 range) with a pool and a nice yard on a canyon. We had ended up paying less than that to live in a great 3-bedroom home on a golf course in a gated community - replete with citrus trees in our backyard.

This year was different. Houses for rent were more scarce, more expensive, and anything of quality that came up was gone within a day. It was as though the rental market had taken on the characteristics of the buying market of a couple of years ago.

This was not a good environment for me as a renter. I like to haggle. In fact, I find it almost impossible not to try to negotiate for something that is generally negotiable. Usually, my compulsive bargaining results in decent deals for us (ominous foreshadowing).

After seeing a dozen homes over a few weeks, we were becoming discouraged. There was a lot of junk out there. And much of it was priced higher than we wanted to go. And we were still pretty exhausted from night feeds and day cries. It was not a fun time.

Then on July 4, 2008, we finally saw a house that we both liked. It was extremely well maintained, with a huge yard, on a canyon that received cool ocean breezes, and had plenty of space. We sat down with the owners and chatted. They were pleasant. We established a good rapport with them and they said they would be happy to have us as tenants.

We left that evening and confirmed to each other that we had found a gem. We decided to go for it. The next morning I called the owner and told him that we were interested... Then my compulsion kicked in: "Is there any flexibility in the rent?" I asked. He said there might be and that he would talk to his wife and get back to us that afternoon.

Karin and I were pretty excited. We had finally found a place. The landlords were great. The property was perfect. That afternoon I called the owner back. He said that he was willing to do a few things but they had not decided on the rent issue. He told me he would get back to me that evening with an answer.

By that evening, the answer really didn't matter very much to us. Karin and I had decided to take it regardless of what he said. I was so certain that we were going to take it that I called movers to make arrangements. We were relieved. The search had been taking a toll on us but our patience had paid off and now we could plan the rest of our summer.

The next morning I was up by 6:00 AM. The owner of the house had not called us back. I wanted to call him to arrange for us to sign the lease but it was a tad early. I hung out with APL and looked into flights to Canada.

Soon after 10:00 AM, Karin came downstairs and I reached for the phone to call the landlord. He answered the phone and was very friendly. I then asked if we could finalize and sign the lease. His response: "Actually, someone came by this morning to see it and they signed a lease."

I choked. There was a rather unpleasant silence. I glanced at Karin with a look of horror on my face. "She is going to kill me," I thought. I responded to the landlord: "I thought you were going to call me about the rent issue, John." "Well, these people came in with a deposit this morning." He then went on to tell me that he was excited about possibly working with me as he does something with immigration for the federal government. I politely acknowledged his offer and got off the phone.

I composed myself, not quite believing that the house was gone. I then turned to Karin and told her what had transpired. It was devastating. We were back where we had started. We would have to begin the search over again. Karin was not happy. I was not happy. APL was perfectly oblivious.

That was one terrible moment. And the rest of the day was not much better. We went out looking at homes, exhausted ourselves, and returned home feeling defeated.

The following day we went to Del Mar for dinner at my dad's place. On the way, we passed a rental sign for a 3-bedroom house not far from the beach. It looked like the current tenants were outside packing up. We stopped the car and I went over the speak to them. They were not the owners but they described the house and it sounded PERFECT for us. I immediately called the landlord. "Maybe not getting that other house is going to mean this amazing opportunity for us," I thought to myself. I left a message for the landlord stating that I was very interested and to call me ASAP.

The next morning I called the landlord again and got him on the phone. I asked him if we might be able to take a look inside the house that day. He told me he was getting rental applications ready and would call me when he had them done. This was great news to me. It meant that no one had seen the place yet. I could swoop in and grab it! A few hours later, when he had not called back, I called him again. The conversation went something like this:

Me: "Hi Eric. Jaime calling. Are those rental apps ready? We'd like to get moving on this."

Eric: "Oh, Jaime... Someone brought me a credit report and deposit and I rented it."

Me: (sound of choking)

Twice in two days we had a cool property slip through our fingers? We were unhappy but it was a wake-up call. It was time to engage in guerrilla renting.

Karin and I regrouped. Yes we were feeling defeated. And starting over seemed daunting. But we had to persevere. I was on Craigslist with a vengeance. I was in the MLS constantly. And I was seeing houses. This time we were taking no chances. This time we were going for the rental equivalent of the jugular.

A few days later a rental became available in Del Mar. We called the owner and were told that he was seeing prospective renters from noon until two the following day. We arrived at noon, credit report and checkbook in hand; if we liked it, we intended to give him the report, a deposit, and to sign a lease on the spot. When we entered the house, one resourceful couple was already inside - and they were already done filling out their rental application. Ten minutes later, 6 possible renters were gathered in the kitchen, listening to the landlord describing his recent heart attack. I thought it was going to erupt into a bidding war. At 12:45 PM I had to get back to work but Karin stayed behind to secure our position. She ended up chatting with the owner until 1:30 PM. We had not even decided if we wanted it for sure, but we knew that if we did not play it all the way, we would lose the option. In the end, we decided not to take it but we had perfected our technique.

A week later things were not exactly going well. I had seen multiple houses but I had only come across one that I had liked - and it was small... too small. I was starting to feel like we were hostages to our furniture. Do we really have to rent a place to accommodate all these things?

We persevered. Another week went by. I was being religious about Craigslist and the MLS but my results were not stellar. And then, one night, we were at a friend's house. They had the local newspaper out in the kitchen and I turned to the classified section. There were a grand total of two houses listed in the area we were pursuing. I called both.

Within a couple of days we had seen the two of them. They were radically different from each other but, shockingly, we liked each of them. We sold ourselves to the owners, filled out rental applications, and stayed in complete control of the process... or so we thought.

On July 17, we were told by both landlords that we had passed their credit checks and that they both wanted us as tenants. We informed each of them that we had narrowed the choice down to two properties. One landlord remained positive and asked that we keep her informed. The other landlord did not take it so well. Apparently landlord #2 thought that once she had told us we could have her rental, the process was over. She criticized me for not letting her know earlier. This unpleasantness was unfortunate but after all we had been through it barely affected us. We were obviously in the driver's seat at this point.

K & I deliberated and decided to to put an offer in on the more expensive house. If they didn't accept, we would go for the other one (that of the Unhappy Landlord). I called the Pleasant Landlord with the offer. She said she would get back to us with an answer. Thirty minutes later, Unhappy Landlord called our home. We did not take the call as we were waiting for a response from the Pleasant Landlord. Unhappy Landlord then called my cell. And then she called Karin's cell. And then she called our home again and left an abrasive message that went something like this: "If you don't let us know by 9:00 PM, we are going to give the house to someone else. [click]" That gave us less than 2 hours.

At 8:30 PM we called Pleasant Landlord. She and her husband had agreed to accept our offer. We arranged to meet the following evening to review and sign the lease. Relief. Now it was time to call Unhappy Landlord back. I thought Karin might like to make that call but she refused. At 8:55 PM I called Unhappy Landlord and broke the news to her. She then evolved from Unhappy Landlord to Very Very Unhappy and Unpleasant Landlord. She read me the rental equivalent of the Riot Act. But, 5 minutes later, I was off the phone and we were quite pleased - both to have a place and to be done with Very Very Unhappy and Unpleasant Landlord.

The following evening we went to Pleasant Landlord's house, adjusted the lease to suit all parties, and signed on the dotted line. And now, after a grueling, summer-destroying home search, we have a place for APL to turn 1 without being threatened by golfballs and hawks.