For the past three years I have successfully avoided the curse that is house hunting. Now I'm a junior and it is finally that time to start looking for a place to live for my senior year. Going into the process I was overwhelmingly excited. I was on Pinterest for hours looking at how I wanted to decorate my room for the all important senior year. I was walking different routes home everyday looking for houses. I had nailed down the perfect group of girls that I wanted to live with. Everything seemed to be going great! But then the actual house hunting started.
First me and my friends scheduled some showings for houses that fit our bedroom preference and were in the perfect location. We showed up at the first house overly excited and immediately as we entered we knew it was a hard no. Yes, the outside was super cute and it was in the perfect location, but the overwhelming stench of dirty clothes upon entering was something we would not overcome. As we climbed up the stairs we came upon a few that were not totally stable and then we entered the upstairs kitchen. This house had no hope. My friends and I all looked at each other and knew we didn't even need to talk about it. Final decision, NO.
Next we went to a house which at first we thought was perfect. Amazing porch, fun large living space, 8 bedroom, amazing location, parking spots. But a basement that we couldn't sell to our other friends. Safe to say this place was perfect, but the price wasn't right. So onto the next.
After going to several more showings my friends and I were all over the process. Within a week we had seen over 7 houses, gotten screwed out of $500 by our leasing company, and had completely lost all hope. At this point I would have lived out of a shoebox and been perfectly happy.
After one of the most stressful weeks of my life, fighting with my friends, parents, and relators I determined that house hunting was 100% worse than midterms. I would have gladly retaken my 4000 level midterms rather than dealing with all the problems that came up as a result of house hunting.
To all of those going through this horrible process, I wish you luck. No matter what happens you will only live in your house, or apartment, or dorm, for one year at a time so hopefully it won't make or break your college experience.
