Rental craziness

I advertised our townhome in Albuquerque for rent on Zillow at around 10:30 this morning. I already had one person ready to sign the lease, a neighbor who had seen my tenants moving out and contacted me. But I thought I’d list the house anyway, in case the neighbor fell through.

Within minutes the applications started pouring in – the first one at 10:37 and the voicemails started at 10:39. They’re sending me their credit scores and everything, trying to make a good case, and some of them don’t even want to wait to look at the house, they’re ready to sign the lease now.

And I just started crying, because I feel bad for everyone who is struggling to find a house right now. Not to mention the thousands who are currently losing their homes due to no fault of their own.

I don’t understand why there’s not nearly enough houses for rent or for sale. I guess my friends in the Bay Area are used to this, but Albuquerque and Tucson?

All the applications are good, credit scores are excellent, incomes are impressive, I could rent this house many times over. I feel bad having to say no to all but one applicant. The house has only been listing for 20 minutes and I’ve already got more applications than I even want to look at.

I took the ad down after half an hour. Why aren’t there enough houses?

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com

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