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Backcountry Skiing blogs, videos, photos, and a whole lotta stoke.

Finding a Place to Live for the Winter | Jackson Hole, WY United States | 11/20/08, by hotChocolate

Oh, the desperation!  It's that time of year again when ski towns are filling up with recent college grads faster than falling gasoline prices- drooling at the slopes and less than sober.  Their tasks for November:   1) Job  2) Place to live. 

This year I have found myself on both sides of the housing market.  Due to some dog-related condo rules, my husband and I are in the market for a new place to live.  At the same time, we are trying to rent out the condo that we own.  So over the past few weeks, I've been cursing landlords for charging too much and not allowing pets.  In the next breath I've been trying to extort as much possible cash from naive newbies, and not allow dogs.

For both parties invovled,  I have to say the process is a worse disaster than allowing Paula Abdul to speak.  So to help out my Skiing the Backcountry friends who are involved in the rental market at this time, I decided to give some advice based on my recent experiences:

For Renters:

1)  "No Dogs Allowed" is actually Spanish for; "No Dogs Allowed". 

2) If you find yourself looking at a basement room with no windows for $850/month and then the landlord tells you that he loves to play ping pong right outside your door every night, you might want to get the hell out of dodge.  If you are still feigning interest as he shows you his personal yoga space in the middle of the common room, it is definitely time to leave without looking back.

3)  When there are no photos posted in an ad, it's not because the landlord doesn't have access to a camera. I mean c'mon, these days even your camera has another camera on it!

4)  4 bedrooms and 1 bathroom equals peeing out your window.  Even the most hippified chicks spend 30 minutes in the shower.  Even the most salty dudes like to read a magazine while they.......

For Landlords:

1) Maybe you should at least spray some lysol, light a candle, or at least pass some gas to cover up that suspicious mold smell before having people over to check out your place.

2) When you've already signed a lease with a group of renters, and then a trust funder offers you $6,000(true story!) extra to rent the place to him, you can't do it.  Yes,it would pay for new skis, snowmobile, botox, and unlimited pbr but you would be almost for certain karma-dooming yourself to a bad snow year, and that affects us all! 

3) If you plan to live with your renters, get references. Before you know it, that real nice girl, turns out to be some sexual rag doll for underage teens in exchange for booze. Again true story.

Renters and landlords alike- I simply wish you luck and hope the snow falls soon.