Finding a House

I moved into my house before all my roommates since they were traveling abroad. The previous year we knew we wanted to move into a house within walking distance from campus. But most houses around the area are very expensive and cost around 600 a room plus utilities this was way out of our price range. My roommates and I decided to play the waiting game hoping that something would turn up and checked craigslist daily. We were currently homeless for the upcoming year when our prayers were finally answered; we had found a house on craigslist off Vanderbilt Avenue. This was prime location on campus, all the students lived on this street, it was the closest neighborhood to campus and was within sight/walking distance from bars and the library. The house was in our price range and was available we immediately called the landlord and decided to sign out lease that next Friday. We decided it might be a good idea to tour the house before moving in. I was going out of town the upcoming weekend so my roommate and I thought it would be a brilliant idea to tour the house after a Friday night trip to the bar. We later learned that a house looks very different in daylight and while not intoxicated. When we first entered the house it was messy and looked run down however this did not seem to phase us at the time, all we could think about was how the house was on Vanderbilt Avenue. I was excited about the house and remembered it very differently. When it came time to finally move into the house on June 1^st I was thrilled.

Pre-Estate Sales

That next Saturday we all woke up and made the thirty minute drive out to Garner to where the estate sale was located. When we first arrived we all were given strange looks, we were definitely the youngest people at the sale by at least forty years.  As most estate sales go the auctioneer (the guy who runs the bidding on the items) gives customers around an hour to look around the house so people can figure out what they want to bid on. When going to an estate sale you have to look at the potential of every item. Something that may look invaluable can be worth the most amount of money at the sale. For example my parents went to an estate sale last week and found a silver dining set in the bottom of an old tool box. My parents kept quiet and bought the tool box for five dollars and went home and sold the silver dining set for $700 dollars, talk about finding hidden treasures.  After looking around we decided on the items we wanted to bid on. We settled on bidding on an antique mirror, kitchen table, set of dishes, oriental rug, and a few other things. As the bidding began we settled on our maximum price we were willing to pay for each item.  The first item up for bidding was the kitchen table which we desperately needed. The bidding began and to our advantage the other individuals in the room typically let us win our items because I think they felt bad for us or were extremely confused why we were there. In any case we managed to go home with all our big ticket items we wanted and pay only $150 for everything. If we had purchased these items at a thrift store or flee market we would have paid well over $500. After returning back to the house I decided to look online to see how much some of the items were appraised for. The Oriental rug we purchased which was our biggest investment cost us $40 and was appraised for $450 on eBay. Once again my parents were right, estate sales are awesome and offer one of a kind items for dirt cheap prices

Pre Estate Sales

Estate sales are a college students dream for finding hidden treasures. Once moving into an old fraternity house with seven bedrooms, my roommates and I entered a dilemma...how were we going to furnish the house. We were all on limited budgets and had nothing besides a few old pieces of furniture our parents had passed down to us. At first, we decided that we could furnish the house by going to thrift stores and the flee market. We expected to find cool mirrors and other knickknacks for the house that would be no more than thirty or forty dollars. We were highly disappointed, all the things we discovered at thrift stores were at least fifty dollars and the flee market items weren’t priced any better.  So after a defeating week of shopping I called my parents and they told me about going to estate sales. I knew they had bought some of my bedroom furniture at estate sales, but the thought of buying dead persons things grossed me out. However, I was in a tight squeeze and decided to give it a try. I used the website auctionzip.com to find estate sales that were in my area. Just a tip make sure the listing on the site says estate sale and not auctions. Auctions are typically more expensive and their prices are comparable to thrift stores. Typically estate sales take place early Saturday morning and are located in the middle of nowhere.