The Frustrations of Being Homeless

Ok, well not really living in the streets homeless, but instead, living with Volante's Parents. The house is too small for all of us and we are tripping over ours and their stuff. Then there is the non-physical side of it, the various "rules" and the comments and general attitude sometimes, and MAJOR lack of privacy. The kids are sleeping in the living room, and we are sleeping in what was at one time, the dining room, which really is too small to be a bedroom for 2 adults. As for the "rules," I have nothing against living to other peoples rules in their house, but its how they are presented and enforced that get to me. This is no way to live let alone raise our kids. Dont get me wrong, I am GRATEFUL to have a roof over our heads, really, I am, but its time to go.
There is another side to it; house hunting, particularly, rental house hunting. Buying or renting, house hunting can be a PITA, no, it IS a PITA. There are (obvious) differences between looking to buy, and looking to rent. Probably the most frustrating part of renting is that it the own can pick the renter. Lets look at some of the issues, first there is credit checks. Really? Credit? To rent?  Ya, I get that you COULD use a credit report to see if they pay their bills, but at the same time, what if MOST of what you have paid in the last 7 years is NOT on a credit report? (They required a credit score of 600 or better).You can NOT judge someones ability to pay NOW against what happened in the past. Then there is work. Ok, I have been employed now for a month and a half, so does that mean that I do not have good employment history? I can see if I had 7 jobs in 3 years. Yes I know it does not look good that i have been unemployed for 2 years, but look around, how many other people are in that situation or have been in that situation. Does that mean they can not keep a job?
We went up to Maine 2 weekends ago to go look at a house. That same day there was to be another family to look at the house as well. He seemed to like us, we asked all the right questions and gave all the (assumingly) right answers, and a few in particular such as his very anti-pesticide stance for his yard, we completely agreed on that. We went home and filled out the application and emailed it to him. The only response we have been given is that there are "othere applications we're going to go over." When buying, if you have the $$, its jsut a matter of some legal paperwork (mountains of it) to be done and its yours. I can remember (while in my previous marriage) looking to rent and it was pretty much "first come first served." there was no "competing" to rent a house. Another frustration; obviously there is a large demand for rental properties, otherwise we would not be waiting like highschool grad waits on hearing from a college. With such a demand, you would think that if you have an advertised (on-line) rental property you might want to respond to emails from people wanting to rent it! Oh, and include a damn phone number! Unless of course you really dont want to rent it. I have no idea how many emails I have sent out inquiring about houses, asking for pictures (for those that include NO pictures, ya there is a smart advertising idea) with 0 responses, that's right, 0, not one. People keep asking me how it is possible that we have not found a place yet, well that's how. The internet is a wonderful tool for moving to another state, but only if everyone uses it the right way.