I’m back combing the streets for real estate today. I’ve been up the Peninsula looking at duplexes, etc. Those people seem pretty well happy with where they’re at. Not many signs at all in the areas I was looking. I’ll be looking down in Blossom Hill/Santa Theresa area today. We have to get out of this hotel. We’re bleeding money like crazy, although I’m grateful to have any roof over our heads.

It used to be so easy to find stuff for rent and for sale. You just opened the newspaper and there were all the ads. They say the internet has made things even easier, but I don’t really agree. If you are in a particular category and looking for a specific kind of seller, they’re a lot harder to find. There are so many different sites now to place your ad for your home if you’re a homeowner, and if you’re a renter you have to check so many sites to find that one seller you’re looking for. It’s extremely time consuming before you ever get in your car to go look at places.

Our situation is like many who are looking for a home in this real estate market today. There are so many renters and homeowners that lost their homes to foreclosure, and of course what’s the first thing to happen? They take a credit hit. In so many cases their credit was great up until their home loan adjusted, and everything went down hill from there. Many of these are still good people and just trying to survive after foreclosure. They believe in paying their bills and paying them on time. They just got into a bad situation and now have to re-establish all that they lost, but they are in limbo because they don’t qualify for anything.

On the other side of the coin are homeowners with houses sitting empty because the renter that was in there has either lost their job or moved on. They can’t really afford to pay that house payment plus the one their living in, and so they’re desperate to get it sold or re-rented. With the advent of the internet, it’s become harder and harder for these two to find each other.

Everyone says Craig’s List is the place to go. Put your house on Craig’s List and it will get sold or rented in nothing flat. That may be true, but the brokers have pretty much taken over Craig’s List, so if you’re selling on your own you have quite a bit of competition there. The “for Sale By Owner” gets a bit lost in the shuffle. If you’re trying to rent your home out, there really isn’t a good category for you at all. It’s mostly apartments and rooms for rent.

So today I will be checking the classified ads in the paper, combing the streets for real estate signs in the areas I want to live in or know they have a lot of duplexes, and keeping my fingers crossed that we will be getting settled in somewhere soon.

If you’re having problems finding a place after foreclosure, whether you were a renter or a homeowner, I would be happy to help. Either contact me direct or leave a comment below.