Duped

I noticed that my teeth were getting really sensitive lately. The ad on the television said that the really expensive toothpaste was clinically proven to rebuild the enamel on teeth, so I purchased a tube. I've been using it for a while. Then one evening while I was brushing my teeth I decided to see what was in it that was rebuilding the enamel. The only active ingredient is stannous fluoride 0.454%, the same as in the Colgate Total that I usually choose, the same as is in the regular Colgate that I could go to the Dollar Tree and buy six tubes of for the same price I paid for the expensive "special enamel rebuilding" toothpaste. Okay, I was duped. I should have read the label before I bought into the hype. I worked in marketing, I should know better. The lies aren't in what we are told, they are in what we aren't told.

The apartment that I had been looking at has been leased by someone else. I was sad to see that I had missed that opportunity. I was actually upset enough by the loss that I had even started to look at other communities in other states. And I started to see a pattern. All of the renter sites have the same four or five reasonably priced apartments, usually not in the most sought after neighborhoods, and usually not very well maintained complexes. Then the prices all start rising substantially for more sought after apartments. And this would be a normal practice if all the apartments in all the different areas didn't all have the same price ranges. The less sought after units range from $750-$950, the mid-range from $1200 to $1600 and high end rising into the $2000's no matter if you are near a larger town with a higher earning potential or if you are a small cross-road in the depths of the booney woods. It reeks of price fixing. 

So I tried a different tactic, I went on to sites like FB marketplace and Craigs List and got addresses for the town I want to live in. It was an eye-opening experience. There were some probably real listings that aren't on the renter sites. But then there are a whole slew of listings like a four bedroom, three bath house with a bonus room and a garage for $450, all utilities included. Do people fall for that? That rent won't cover the utilities for a house that size. Anyway, I got a few addresses that I was interested in and plugged them into the renter sites. And behold, a whole world of rental units that the sites weren't showing me appeared. And some of the rents are substantially less, not $450 for a McMansion, but we are talking serious money here. There is a two bedroom house in the same neighborhood that the apartment I wanted going for $150 less a month. And I think I might know the house. If I'm not mistaken, it's one that my aunt and uncle lived in when I was a child. It's older, small, doesn't have a dishwasher and the closets are miniscule. But if it is the house I think it is, it has a lot of character and my aunt loved that house for the rest of her life. There were a lot of other possibilities that the renter sites didn't seem to want to tell me about. I also found out that while the apartment that I was eyeing was leased, there are three others in that complex that are still available. 

I couldn't just give up there. I decided to give it another try using a different tactic. I went on Google Maps and started roaming through the area looking around. There were loads of apartment complexes. I got the addresses and searched them too. And I found out that there is a whole world of apartments that aren't even listed on the renter sites. And those rents are extremely reasonable. I can be in the same neighborhood and save a lot of money from the units that are listed on the renter sites. It really feels like those sites are attempting to price fix the housing markets. If we don't know that there are better values out there, they don't exist. The lie isn't in what you are told, it's in what you aren't told.

I began to think that I might be better off hiring a realtor. But they are only going to show me their listings, and probably only the ones they want me to see. Those renter sites are fueled by the same realtors. I have cousins who live in the area and I decided to reach out to them and see if they knew of any options. I haven't wanted to do this because I don't want to feel beholden to their suggestions, but seriously, I don't know what else to do. I don't want to be duped into paying a price for an apartment that is only building a neighborhood price fixing scheme. A couple of my cousins got back to me and said that they will ask around. I am grateful for that, but I still want to make my own decision.

I'm trying to not let outrage build over what I feel I have discovered. The housing market in this country is driving people to homelessness. I saw it in the Pacific North West and I saw it as I was on the train travelling through West Virginia. I see it when I visit my daughter in Chicago. On one side you have employers refusing to pay living wages to their employees and then you have corporate greed circumventing laws to rig the housing markets. There seems that there should be some kind of equalizer, but there isn't. How many people will be living on park benches before we as a society demands better? I can't see the answer to that.